最新美国发明专利
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US09397032B2 Guard ring structure and method for forming the same
A guard ring structure is provided, including a semiconductor substrate with a circuit region encircled by a first ring and a second ring. In one embodiment, the semiconductor substrate has a first dopant type, and the first and second ring respectively includes a plurality of separated first doping regions formed in a top portion of the semiconductor substrate, having a second dopant type opposite to the first conductivity type, and an interconnect element formed over the semiconductor substrate, covering the first doping regions.
US09397031B2 Post-mold for semiconductor package having exposed traces
Method of and devices for protecting semiconductor packages are provided. The methods and devices comprise loading a leadframe containing multiple semiconductor packages into a molding device, adding a molding material on a surface of the leadframe, molding the molding material, such that the molding material covers the entire surface of the semiconductor packages except conducting terminals, and singulating the semiconductor packages from the leadframe after molding the molding material.
US09397026B2 Semiconductor device having flat leads
A semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor chip mounted on an island, and a plurality of leads spaced form the island and connected by wires to the semiconductor chip. An insulating film encapsulates the island, the semiconductor chip, the wires and the leads, and the insulating resin has a concave portion that is in contact with the leads. Each lead has a bottom surface exposed from the insulating resin, and the concave portion of the insulating resin exposes side surfaces which surround the bottom surface of each of the leads located under a bottom surface of the insulating resin. When the semiconductor device is soldered to a circuit board, the concave portion prevents contact between the solder and the insulating resin and improves self-alignment of the semiconductor device on the circuit board.
US09397023B2 Integration of heat spreader for beol thermal management
A microelectronic device includes a heat spreader layer on an electrode of a component and a metal interconnect on the heat spreader layer. The heat spreader layer is disposed above a top surface of a substrate of the semiconductor device. The heat spreader layer is 100 nanometers to 3 microns thick, has an in-plane thermal conductivity of at least 150 watts/meter-° K, and an electrical resistivity less than 100 micro-ohm-centimeters.
US09397021B2 Electrical connector
An electrical connector for electrically connecting a chip module to a circuit board, includes an insulating body, multiple conducting bodies, and multiple pieces of low melting point metal. The insulating body has multiple accommodating spaces. Each accommodating space runs through upper and lower surfaces of the insulating body. The multiple conducting bodies are respectively received in the accommodating spaces. Two ends of each conducting body are exposed on the upper and lower surfaces of the insulating body. The low melting point metal is gallium or gallium alloy. Each piece of the low melting point metal is correspondingly arranged at at least one end of one of the conducting bodies. The low melting point metal protrudes from the insulating body, and is electrically connected to the chip module.
US09397017B2 Substrate structures and methods of manufacture
A semiconductor package. Implementations may include a substrate including a metallic baseplate coupled with an electrically insulative layer and a plurality of metallic traces coupled to the electrically insulative layer on a surface of the electrically insulative layer opposing a surface of the electrically insulative layer coupled to the metallic baseplate. The plurality of metallic traces may include at least two different trace thicknesses, where the trace thicknesses are measured perpendicularly to the surface of the electrically insulative layer coupled with the metallic baseplate. The package may include at least one semiconductor device coupled to the substrate, a mold compound that encapsulates the power electronic device and at least a portion of the substrate, and at least one package electrical connector coupled with the substrate.
US09397016B2 Flip chip assembly process for ultra thin substrate and package on package assembly
In some embodiments, selective electroless plating for electronic substrates is presented. In this regard, a method is introduced including receiving a coreless substrate strip, attaching solder balls to a backside of the coreless substrate strip, and forming a backside stiffening mold amongst the solder balls. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.
US09397014B2 Semiconductor device having laterally-extending electrode with reduced inductance
An electrode includes an extending portion extending such that both ends thereof get into a first recessed portion and a second recessed portion provided in a first inner wall and a second inner wall, respectively, facing each other in a lateral direction of a case. The extent to which both the ends of the extending portion get into is set such that positions of both the ends thereof in a case where both the ends are narrowed toward a midpoint therebetween to reduce a length of the extending portion to 70% of the length of the extending portion exist between positions of the first and second inner walls in a case where the first and second inner walls are each narrowed toward a midpoint therebetween by 10% of the distance between the first and second inner walls.
US09397011B1 Systems and methods for reducing copper contamination due to substrate processing chambers with components made of alloys including copper
Systems and methods for reducing copper contamination in a substrate processing system include performing a plasma process on a substrate in a processing chamber of a substrate processing system. A component is located in the processing chamber and is made of an alloy including copper. The plasma process uses a process gas mixture including molecular hydrogen. Prior to performing the plasma process on the substrate and before the substrate is arranged in the processing chamber, the component is conditioned in the processing chamber using a conditioning plasma process that includes a process gas mixture including molecular oxygen and forming gas.
US09397008B1 Semiconductor device and manufacturing method of conductive structure in semiconductor device
A manufacturing method of a conductive structure in a semiconductor device includes the following steps. A plurality of gate structures are formed on a semiconductor structure, and a first dielectric layer is formed in space between the gate structures. A first process is then performed to remove at least a part of the first dielectric layer in the space between the gate structures. A second dielectric layer is then formed and covers the gate structures so as to form at least one air void in the space between the gate structures. A second process is performed to form at least one opening penetrating the second dielectric layer and exposing the air void. The air void exposed by the opening is then filled with at least one conductive material for forming a conductive structure between the gate structures.
US09397007B2 Method for manufacturing semiconductor structure through forming an additional layer inside opening of a photoresist layer
The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure, which comprises: a) forming gate lines extending in a direction on a substrate; b) forming a photoresist layer that covers the semiconductor structure; patterning the photoresist layer to form openings across the gate lines; c) narrowing the openings by forming a self-assembly copolymer inside the openings; and d) cutting the gate lines via the openings to make the gate lines insulated at the openings. Through forming an additional layer on the inner wall of the openings of the photoresist layer, the method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure provided by the present invention manages to reduce the distance between the two opposite walls of the openings in the direction of gate width, namely, the method manages to reduce the distance between the ends of electrically isolated gates located on the same line where it is unnecessary to manufacture a cut mask whose lines are extremely fine. Working area is therefore saved, which accordingly improves integration level of semiconductor devices. In addition, the present invention further provides a semiconductor structure according to the method provided by the present invention.
US09397004B2 Methods for fabricating FinFET integrated circuits with simultaneous formation of local contact openings
A method for fabricating a finFET integrated circuit includes providing a finFET integrated circuit structure including a fin structure, a replacement metal gate structure having a silicon nitride cap disposed over and in contact with the fin structure, a contact structure including a tungsten material also disposed over and in contact with the fin structure, and an insulating layer disposed over the replacement metal gate structure and the contact structure. The method further includes forming a first opening in the insulating layer over the replacement gate structure and a second opening in the insulating layer over the contact structure. Forming the first and second openings includes exposing the FinFET integrated circuit structure to a single extreme ultraviolet lithography patterning. Still further, the method includes removing a portion of the silicon nitride material of the replacement metal gate structure and forming a metal fill material in the first and second openings.
US09397002B1 Self-aligned punchthrough stop doping in bulk finFET by reflowing doped oxide
A technique relates to punchthrough stop (PTS) doping in bulk fin field effect transistors. Fins are formed on a substrate, and each pair of the fins has a fin pitch. Each of the fins has an undoped fin channel and a punchthrough stop doping region underneath the undoped fin channel. A narrow shallow trench isolation trench is formed between the fin pitch of the fins. A wide shallow trench isolation trench is formed at an outside edge of the fins. A doped layer fills the narrow shallow trench isolation trench and the wide shallow trench isolation trench. A vertical thickness of the doped layer in the narrow shallow trench isolation trench is greater than a vertical thickness of the wide shallow trench isolation trench.
US09396996B2 Methods of forming openings in semiconductor structures
A method of forming a semiconductor structure comprises forming pools of acidic or basic material in a substrate structure. A resist is formed over the pools of acidic or basic material and the substrate structure. The acidic or basic material is diffused from the pools into portions of the resist proximal to the pools more than into portions of the resist distal to the pools. Then, the resist is exposed to a developer to remove a greater amount of the resist portions proximal to the pools compared to the resist portions distal to the pools to form openings in the resist. The openings have wider portions proximal to the substrate structure and narrower portions distal to the substrate structure. The method may further comprise forming features in the openings of the resist. The features have wider portions proximal to the substrate structure and narrower portions distal to the substrate structure.
US09396992B2 Method of using a barrier-seed tool for forming fine-pitched metal interconnects
A barrier seed tool is configured to clean trenches in a first chamber, line the trenches with a diffusion barrier layer, and form a copper seed layer over the diffusion barrier layer in a second chamber. The clean chamber is configured to reduce overhangs in the copper seed layer by producing a plasma comprising positively and negatively charged ions including halogen ions, filtering the plasma to selectively exclude positively charged ions, and bombarding with the filtered plasma. The tool and related method can be used to reduce overhangs and improve subsequent gap fill while avoiding excessive damage to the dielectric matrix.
US09396990B2 Capping layer for improved deposition selectivity
The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for improving back-end-of-the-line (BEOL) reliability. In some embodiments, the method forms an extreme low-k (ELK) dielectric layer having one or more metal layer structures over a semiconductor substrate. A first capping layer is formed over the ELK dielectric layer at a position between the one or more metal layer structures. A second capping layer is then deposited over the one or more metal layer structures at a position that is separated from the ELK dielectric layer by the first capping layer. The first capping layer has a high selectivity that limits interaction between the second capping layer and the ELK dielectric layer, reducing diffusion of the atoms from the second capping layer to the ELK dielectric layer and improving dielectric breakdown of the ELK dielectric layer.
US09396985B2 Element isolation structure of semiconductor and method for forming the same
Disclosed are an element isolation structure of a semiconductor device and a method for forming the same, the method including preparing a semiconductor substrate having an inactive region and an active region defined thereon, forming a first hard mask on the semiconductor substrate, exposing the inactive region of the semiconductor substrate by patterning the first hard mask, forming a second hard mask on the entire surface of the semiconductor substrate including the first hard mask, forming a deep trench in the semiconductor substrate by patterning the second hard mask and the semiconductor substrate, removing the patterned second hard mask, forming a shallow trench overlapped with the deep trench by patterning the semiconductor substrate using the first hard mask as a mask, forming an insulation film on the entire surface of the substrate including the shallow trench and the deep trench, filling the shallow trench and the deep trench by forming an element isolation film on the insulation film, and forming an element isolation film pattern in the deep trench and the shallow trench by selectively removing the element isolation film.
US09396983B2 Susceptor
A susceptor, comprises: a base part; multiple holders distributed on the base part for accommodating wafers; an inner ring connected to the base part; and an outer ring detachably connected to the base part and separated from the inner ring; wherein the inner ring and the outer ring separate the holders from one another.
US09396982B2 Semiconductor device carrier for fine pitch packaging miniaturization and manufacturing method thereof
A semiconductor package and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The package element has a first insulating layer, and a plurality of holes are disposed on the first surface of the first insulating layer. Besides, a plurality of package traces are embedded in the insulating layer and connected to the other end of the holes. The holes function as a positioning setting for connecting the solder balls to the package traces, such that the signal of the semiconductor chip is connected to the package trace via conductor of the chip, and further transmitted externally via solder ball. The elastic modulus of the material of the first insulating layer is preferably larger than 1.0 GPa.
US09396978B2 Substrate processing apparatus, substrate processing method and storage medium
A substrate processing apparatus can efficiently perform a trial operation in conditions close to those of an actual operation. In the substrate processing apparatus 1 for taking substrates W out of a transfer chamber (FOUPs 1 to 4), processing the substrates W in each of processing modules 2 and returning the processed substrates W to the transfer chamber, a mode selection unit 31 selects an operation check mode for performing an operation check of wafer transfer devices 15 and 17 or the processing modules 2. Further, a job setting unit 32 sets control jobs for the operation check and a process job as a recipe executed on the substrate W. A controller 3 determines whether or not a first control job and a second control job to be executed subsequently after the first control job are allowed to be executed in parallel.
US09396977B2 Moisture and/or electrically conductive remains detection for wafers after rinse / dry process
A method, device, and apparatus is provided for detecting moisture and/or electrically conductive remains on a wafer after the wafer is removed from a drying chamber of a processing tool that includes wet clean processing. Embodiments include fixing a wafer to an endeffector between a processing chamber and a FOUP, moving the wafer from the processing chamber toward the FOUP, detecting moisture and/or electrically conductive remains on the wafer, and delivering the wafer to the FOUP, if no moisture and/or electrically conductive remains are detected, or delivering the wafer to a buffer station, if moisture and/or electrically conductive remains are detected.
US09396972B2 Micro-assembly with planarized embedded microelectronic dies
An IC assembly includes multiple microelectronic dies embedded in a substrate material using capillary forces such that the contact surface of each microelectronic die is coplanar with a planar upper surface of the substrate material. The substrate material is deposited as a layer of uncured polymer in a paste (or other solid form) on a base chip, and then the microelectronic dies are mounted on the layer surface in a predefined pattern. The uncured polymer is then heated until becomes a flowable liquid, causing the microelectronic dies to be pulled into the liquid polymer by capillary forces until the contact surface of each microelectronic die is coplanar with the upper liquid polymer surface. The liquid polymer is then cured to form the substrate material as a cross-linked robust solid film that fixedly secures the microelectronic dies in the predefined pattern. The microelectronic dies are then interconnected using standard metallization techniques.
US09396970B2 Method for electrochemically manufacturing CuSCN nanowires
A method for forming, on a conductive or semiconductor substrate, nanowires based on CuSCN, including the steps of: preparing an aqueous electrolytic solution from a Cu(II) salt having a concentration lower than 120 mM, a Cu(II) complexing agent from the aminocarboxylic acid family, and a thiocyanate salt, the solution having a pH ranging between 0.1 and 3; electrochemically depositing the aqueous electrolytic solution on the substrate.
US09396965B2 Techniques and apparatus for anisotropic metal etching
In one embodiment, a method for etching a metal layer on a substrate may include providing a hydrogen-containing gas and an impurity gas to a plasma chamber; generating a plasma from the hydrogen-containing gas and the impurity gas in the plasma chamber, the plasma comprising hydrogen-containing ions; providing gaseous species from the plasma chamber to the substrate, wherein the providing the gaseous species comprises directing an ion beam comprising the hydrogen-containing ions formed from the plasma through an extraction aperture of an extraction plate disposed between the substrate and the plasma.
US09396961B2 Integrated etch/clean for dielectric etch applications
The embodiments herein relate to methods and apparatus for etching a recessed feature in dielectric material. In various embodiments, a recessed feature is formed in two etching operations. The first etching operation partially etches the features and may take place in a reactor configured to produce a capacitively coupled plasma. The first etching operation may end before the underlying semiconductor material experiences substantial damage due to penetration of ions through the dielectric atop the semiconductor material. The second etching operation may take place in a reactor configured to produce an inductively coupled plasma. Both the first and second etching operations may themselves be multi-step, cyclic processes.
US09396957B2 Non-lithographic line pattern formation
A metal layer is deposited over an underlying material layer. The metal layer includes an elemental metal that can be converted into a dielectric metal-containing compound by plasma oxidation and/or nitridation. A hard mask portion is formed over the metal layer. Plasma oxidation or nitridation is performed to convert physically exposed surfaces of the metal layer into the dielectric metal-containing compound. The sequence of a surface pull back of the hard mask portion, trench etching, another surface pull back, and conversion of top surfaces into the dielectric metal-containing compound are repeated to form a line pattern having a spacing that is not limited by lithographic minimum dimensions.
US09396955B2 Plasma tuning rods in microwave resonator processing systems
A plasma tuning rod system is provided with one or more microwave cavities configured to couple electromagnetic (EM) energy in a desired EM wave mode to a plasma by generating resonant microwave energy in one or more plasma tuning rods within and/or adjacent to the plasma. One or more microwave cavity assemblies can be coupled to a process chamber, and can comprise one or more tuning spaces/cavities. Each tuning space/cavity can have one or more plasma tuning rods coupled thereto. The plasma tuning rods can be configured to couple the EM energy from the resonant cavities to the process space within the process chamber and thereby create uniform plasma within the process space.
US09396954B2 Method and apparatus for manufacturing three-dimensional-structure memory device
Provided is a method of manufacturing a memory device having a 3-dimensional structure, which includes alternately stacking one or more dielectric layers and one or more sacrificial layers on a substrate, forming a through hole passing through the dielectric layers and the sacrificial layers, forming a pattern filling the through hole, forming an opening passing through the dielectric layers and the sacrificial layers, and supplying an etchant through the opening to remove the sacrificial layers. The stacking of the dielectric layers includes supplying the substrate with one or more gases selected from the group consisting of SiH4, Si2H6, Si3H8, and Si4H10, to deposit a silicon oxide layer. The stacking of the sacrificial layers includes supplying the substrate with one or more gases selected from the group consisting of SiH4, Si2H6, Si3H8, Si4H10, and dichloro silane (SiCl2H2), and ammonia-based gas, to deposit a silicon nitride layer.
US09396951B2 System and method for mitigating oxide growth in a gate dielectric
Oxide growth of a gate dielectric layer that occurs between processes used in the fabrication of a gate dielectric structure can be reduced. The reduction in oxide growth can be achieved by maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth of the gate dielectric layer between at least two sequential process steps used in the fabrication the gate dielectric structure. Maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth also improves the uniformity of nitrogen implanted in the gate dielectric.
US09396941B2 Method for vertical and lateral control of III-N polarity
Disclosed herein is a method of: depositing a patterned mask layer on an N-polar GaN epitaxial layer of a sapphire, silicon, or silicon carbide substrate; depositing an AlN inversion layer on the open areas; removing any remaining mask; and depositing a III-N epitaxial layer to simultaneously produce N-polar material and III-polar material. Also disclosed herein is: depositing an AlN inversion layer on an N-polar bulk III-N substrate and depositing a III-N epitaxial layer to produce III-polar material. Also disclosed herein is: depositing an inversion layer on a III-polar bulk III-N substrate and depositing a III-N epitaxial layer to produce N-polar material. Also disclosed herein is a composition having: a bulk III-N substrate; an inversion layer on portions of the substrate; and a III-N epitaxial layer on the inversion layer. The III-N epitaxial layer is of the opposite polarity of the surface of the substrate.
US09396934B2 Methods of forming films including germanium tin and structures and devices including the films
Methods of forming germanium-tin films using germane as a precursor are disclosed. Exemplary methods include growing films including germanium and tin in an epitaxial chemical vapor deposition reactor, wherein a ratio of a tin precursor to germane is less than 0.1. Also disclosed are structures and devices including germanium-tin films formed using the methods described herein.
US09396930B2 Substrate processing apparatus
A substrate processing apparatus in which an improved film quality is obtained is disclosed. A precursor gas supply process of supplying a precursor gas to a process chamber while maintaining a substrate accommodated in the process chamber at a first temperature, a first removal process of removing the precursor gas remaining in the process chamber by supplying an inert gas, which is heated at a second temperature higher than the first temperature, to the process chamber, a reaction gas supply process of supplying a reaction gas to the process chamber, and a second removal process of removing the reaction gas remaining in the process chamber by supplying an inert gas to the process chamber are performed.
US09396924B2 Light source
An electrodeless, microwave lamp has a magnetron as a microwave source and an excitable material lucent crucible in whose excitable material a plasma is established. For coupling microwaves from the magnetron into the crucible, an air wave guide coupling circuit is provided, with an output of the magnetron as an input at one quarter lambda from one end and an output at one quarter from the other end as an input to a connection to the crucible.
US09396919B2 Collision cell
A method of operating a gas-filled collision cell in a mass spectrometer is provided. The collision cell has a longitudinal axis. Ions are caused to enter the collision cell. A trapping field is generated within the collision cell so as to trap the ions within a trapping volume of the collision cell, the trapping volume being defined by the trapping field and extending along the longitudinal axis. Trapped ions are processed in the collision cell and a DC potential gradient is provided, using an electrode arrangement, resulting in a non-zero electric field at all points along the axial length of the trapping volume so as to cause processed ions to exit the collision cell. The electric field along the axial length of the trapping volume has a standard deviation that is no greater than its mean value.
US09396917B2 Device for transferring ions from high to low pressure atmosphere, system and use
Tube-like device (100) for transferring ions generated by means of ion generation source (4) comprising a cylindrical middle portion (104) and an inlet portion (102) for introduction of the ions in at least one ion cloud into the cylindrical middle portion (104), wherein a flow direction of the ions is along a longitudinal axis (L) of the tube-like device (100), wherein the inlet portion (102) is formed tapering funnel-like towards the cylindrical middle portion (104).
US09396909B2 Gas dispersion apparatus
A gas dispersion apparatus for use with a process chamber, comprising: a quartz body having a top, a ring coupled to a bottom surface of the top and a bottom plate having dispersion holes coupled to the ring opposite the top; a plurality of quartz plates disposed between the top and the bottom plate, wherein the plurality of plates are positioned above one another and spaced apart to form a plenum above each of the plurality of plates and the bottom plate; a plurality of quartz tubes to couple the plenums to the plurality of dispersion holes, each of the plurality of quartz tubes having a first end disposed within one of the plenums and having a second end coupled to one of the dispersion holes; and a plurality of conduits disposed through the top, wherein each of the plurality of conduits is coupled to one of the plenums.
US09396906B2 Transmission electron microscope and method of displaying TEM images
A transmission electron microscope (100) includes an electron beam source (2), an illumination lens system (4), an objective lens (8), a projector lens (12), an imager (14) for capturing the TEM image projected by the projector lens (12), a display controller (22) for causing the TEM image captured by the imager (14) to be displayed at a given size reduction percentage on a display device (20), and a control unit (24) for controlling the objective lens (8). The control unit (24) controls the amount of underfocus of the objective lens (8) on the basis of the size reduction percentage to display an edge enhanced image.
US09396905B2 Image evaluation method and charged particle beam device
An image evaluation method includes: a template image acquisition step that designates part of a reference image to acquire a template image; a first comparative image acquisition step that acquires a first comparative image in which the position of the template image is moved in a first direction by a first moving amount relative to the reference image; a first evaluation step that performs a pattern matching process on the template image and the first comparative image and evaluates the template image; a second comparative image acquisition step that acquires a second comparative image in which the position of the template image is moved in a second direction that is orthogonal to the first direction by a second moving amount relative to the reference image; and a second evaluation step that performs the pattern matching process on the template image and the second comparative image and evaluates the template image.
US09396901B2 Field emission devices and methods of manufacturing emitters thereof
A field emission device may comprise: an emitter comprising a cathode electrode and an electron emission source supported by the cathode electrode; an insulating spacer around the emitter, the insulating spacer forming an opening that is a path of electrons emitted from the electron emission source; and/or a gate electrode around the opening. The electron emission source may comprise a plurality of graphene thin films vertically supported in the cathode electrode toward the opening.
US09396900B2 Radio frequency (RF) power coupling system utilizing multiple RF power coupling elements for control of plasma properties
A radio frequency (RF) power coupling system is provided. The system has an RF electrode configured to couple RF power to plasma in a plasma processing system, multiple power coupling elements configured to electrically couple RF power at multiple power coupling locations on the RF electrode, and an RF power system coupled to the multiple power coupling elements, and configured to couple an RF power signal to each of the multiple power coupling elements. The multiple power coupling elements include a center element located at the center of the RF electrode and peripheral elements located off-center from the center of the RF electrode. A first peripheral RF power signal differs from a second peripheral RF power signal in phase.
US09396898B2 Multipole electromechanical switching device
A method and apparatus using electromagnetic switching in a two-step connection process is provided to minimize surge currents and torque oscillations in three-phase motors during starts.
US09396894B2 Conductivity power connection
An improved electrical switch that provides for manual connection and disconnect of power by hand by utilizing a compressible stack of elements to load force over a radial distance as rotated by a user of the switch to establish a high force, low resistance connection.
US09396891B2 Switchgear arrangement
A switchgear has an interrupter unit that includes an arc gap. A first and a second switching contact piece are movable relative to one another. A switching-gas duct originates in the arc gap and connects the arc gap to the surroundings of the interrupter unit. A hollow vessel arrangement delimits at least some sections of the switching-gas duct and is connected to one of the contact pieces. The hollow vessel arrangement includes an external outlet opening for the switching-gas duct.
US09396880B2 High energy density storage device
An energy storage device for providing electrical energy storage of high specific energy density for use in consumer and commercial devices and for storing power to be provided to an electrical power grid. An example of the energy storage device has a plurality of layers of high dielectric constant material, such as Barium Titanate or Hexagonal Barium Titanate, sandwiched between electrode layers made up of a variety of possible conducting materials. The example device includes additional insulating layers, such as Diamond-Like Carbon Coating, between the electrodes that provide for very high breakdown voltages.
US09396874B2 Method of manufacturing coil substrate and inductor
A method of manufacturing a coil substrate, includes forming a plurality of structures, each of the structures including a first insulating layer and a metal layer formed on the first insulating layer; forming a stacked structure by stacking the structures while connecting the metal layers of the adjacent structures in series; and shaping the stacked structure such that the metal layers of the structures are shaped at the same time to be in shapes of wirings, each becomes a part of a spiral-shaped coil, to form the spiral-shaped coil in which the wirings of the adjacent structures are connected in series.
US09396873B2 Dust core and method for manufacturing the same
Provided is a dust core and a method for manufacturing a thereof, having an effect that the soft magnetic powder is prevented from sintering and bonding together upon heating, the hysteresis loss can be effectively reduced, and the DC B-H characteristics is excellent. In a first mixing process, a soft magnetic powder composed mainly of iron and an inorganic insulating powder of 0.4 wt %-1.5 wt % are mixed by a mixer. A mixture obtained in the first mixing process is heated in a non-oxidizing atmosphere at 1000° C. or more and below a sintering temperature of the soft magnetic powder. In a binder addition process, a silane coupling agent of 0.1-0.5 wt % is added. A binder, e.g. a silicone resin of 0.5-2.0 wt % is added to the soft magnetic alloy powder to which the inorganic insulating powder is attached by the silane coupling agent, and the soft magnetic alloy powders are bonded to each other so as to be granulated. Then, the mixture is added with a lubricant resin and compression-molded so as to form a green compact. In an annealing process, the mold is annealed in a non-oxidizing atmosphere.
US09396872B2 Grain oriented electrical steel sheet and method for manufacturing the same
A grain oriented electrical steel sheet may reduce iron loss of material with linear grooves formed thereon for magnetic domain refinement and offer excellent low iron loss properties when assembled as an actual transformer, where the steel sheet has sheet thickness of 0.30 mm or less, linear grooves are formed at intervals of 2-10 mm in the rolling direction, the depth of each of the linear grooves is 10 μm or more, the thickness of the forsterite film at bottom portions of the linear grooves is 0.3 μm or more, total tension applied to the steel sheet by the forsterite film and tension coating is 10.0 MPa or higher in rolling direction, and the proportion of eddy current loss in iron loss W17/50 of the steel sheet is 65% or less when alternating magnetic field of 1.7 T and 50 Hz is applied to the steel sheet in the rolling direction.
US09396868B2 Signal coupling apparatus for power line communication
Disclosed is a signal coupling apparatus for power line communication, the apparatus comprising a housing centrally formed with a groove to pass a power line there through, and a non-contact interface unit accommodated inside the housing to induce a power signal or a power line communication signal from the power line using an electromagnetic induction.
US09396866B2 Blocker of geomagnetically induced currents (GIC)
A device for mitigation Geomagnetic Induce Currents in the power distribution network is described. It may be connected to the neutral of a star-connected three-phase transformer of the power distribution system to ground without compromising its basic insulation, operation or integrity of the system. It requires a circuit having a surge arrester resistor having an adaptive nonlinear negative volt-ampere which is inserted from the transformer neutral to ground and a ground switch connected to the ground and also connected to the surge arrester.The device has two different current paths: whenever there is no GIC the switch remains closed and current flows from the transformer to the ground via the ground switch. Under Geomagnetic Induce Currents, the ground switch opens, allowing the induced current to flow from the transformer to the ground via the surge arrester. The device is formulated and designed according to IEEE/ANSI/NEMA recommended insulation coordination guidelines in order to sustain proper protective margins to the equipment neutral basic insulation levels (BIL, BSL).
US09396865B1 Magnetic component with auxiliary winding circuit board
An auxiliary winding circuit board includes one or more auxiliary conductive windings. The auxiliary winding circuit board is positioned at an axial end of a bobbin, and a core leg extends through an opening in the auxiliary winding circuit board. A main conductive winding is positioned on the bobbin. The auxiliary winding disposed on the auxiliary printed circuit board has enhanced voltage-isolation from the main winding positioned on the bobbin, allowing both a high-voltage main winding and a low-voltage auxiliary winding to be located on one magnetic component. The magnetic component is configured for mounting on a printed circuit board for an electronic device such as a power supply. A modular magnetic component apparatus includes a bobbin with main winding assembly and multiple auxiliary winding circuit boards that may be interchangeably mounted between the bobbin and core for desired applications.
US09396863B2 Transformer
A transformer, according to one possible embodiment, includes: a bobbin part formed by stacking a plurality of bobbins including external connection terminals; and coils respectively wound around the plurality of bobbins. At least one bobbin of the plurality of bobbins includes withdrawing grooves formed in a space between the external connection terminals, the respective coil wound around the at least one bobbin being withdrawn outside the bobbin via the withdrawing grooves and coupled to the external connection terminal.
US09396862B2 Secondary transformer unit for mounting on a vehicle having an electric drive, and vehicle having an electric drive
A secondary transformer unit for mounting on a vehicle having an electric drive includes at least one secondary core, and at least one secondary coil that is arranged on the secondary core. At least one outer skin is provided to envelope the secondary core and contains reinforcing fibers. The outer skin is configured to retain inside the at least one outer skin fragments produced when the at least one secondary core breaks.
US09396860B1 Compliant plunger for latching solenoid
Described herein is a compliant plunger for a latching solenoid. The compliant plunger prevents disengagement of the solenoid when the solenoid is subjected to incidental axial movement. The compliant plunger takes advantage of a compressible compliance device to absorb the incidental axial movement.
US09396858B2 Magnetic spring device
A magnetic spring device includes a permanent magnet, a first yoke and a second yoke, disposed to oppose each other with the permanent magnet interposed therebetween, a movable element, made from a magnetizable body, provided to enable linear movement in an axial direction thereof, in a state wherein a location of an axis is constrained, between the first and second yokes, away from the permanent magnet, where a magnetic path of a magnetic flux that exits from an N-pole of the permanent magnet and returns to a S-pole is formed together with the first and second yokes, and a magnetic flux distribution controlling portion that changes a distribution of an amount of magnetic flux that is provided from the permanent magnet through the first and second yokes to the movable element, and an amount of magnetic flux from the permanent magnet that is not provided to the movable element.
US09396855B2 Method for cooling a superconducting magnet and the superconducting magnet
A method includes the steps of: bringing a refrigerator's distal end into contact with a contact of a heat transfer member to thermally connect the refrigerator via the heat transfer member to a superconducting coil to cool the superconducting coil to cryogenic temperature; after the step of bringing the refrigerator's distal end into contact with the contact of the heat transfer member, bringing the refrigerator's distal end out of contact with the contact of the heat transfer member; and after the step of bringing the refrigerator's distal end out of contact with the contact of the heat transfer member, injecting liquid helium into a helium tank.
US09396854B2 Process and apparatus for removing gaseous contaminants from gas stream comprising gaseous contaminants
The invention provides a process and a device for removing gaseous contaminants from a feed gas stream which comprises methane and gaseous contaminants, in which process the feed gas stream is cooled to obtain a slurry which comprises solid contaminant, liquid phase contaminant and a methane enriched gaseous phase, the slurry so obtained is introduced into a cryogenic separation device (4) in which from the top the methane enriched gaseous phase is removed (5), the slurry is diluted with liquid phase contaminant (6) and introduced as suction fluid into an ejector (9) via which it is passed into a heat exchanger (10) arranged outside the separation device and wherein solid contaminant is melted into liquid phase contaminant, part of the liquid phase contaminant so obtained is recycled (6) to dilute the slurry of contaminants inside the separation device and part (13) is introduced into the bottom part of the separation device, liquid phase is withdrawn (14) from the bottom part of the separation device, and part of the withdrawn liquid phase contaminant is recovered as a stream product (16) and part is recycled (17) to the ejector for use a motive fluid.
US09396852B2 R-T-B based permanent magnet
The present invention provides such a permanent magnet that its magnetic properties will not significantly decrease and it can be prepared at a lower temperature, compared to conventional R-T-B based permanent magnets. In the R-T-B based structure, a stacked structure of R1-T-B based crystal layer and Ce-T-B based crystal layer can be formed by alternatively stacking the R1-T-B based crystal layer and the Ce-T-B based crystal layer. In this way, a high magnetic anisotropy field of the R1-T-B based crystal layer can be maintained while the crystallization temperature can be lowered by the Ce-T-B based crystal layer.
US09396850B2 Grain oriented electrical steel sheet and method for manufacturing the same
A grain oriented electrical steel sheet (1) suppresses the content of Cr in the grain oriented electrical steel sheet to 0.1 mass % or less; (2) sets the coating weight of a forsterite coating, in terms of basis weight of oxygen therein, to at least 3.0 g/m2 and thickness of an anchor portion as a lower portion of forsterite coating to 1.5 μm or less; and (3) controls setting the magnitude of deflection of a test specimen having length: 280 mm to at least 10mm when the forsterite coating is provided on only one surface thereof and at least 20 mm when forsterite coating and the tension coating are provided on the surface.
US09396849B1 Resistor and method of manufacture
The present technology is directed toward a resistor and method of manufacturing the resistor. One or more layers of insulative material are formed on a length of resistive material. Portions of the one or more layers insulative material are removed from the resistive material in a pattern based on a predetermined approximate dimension and predetermined approximate resistance value. A first set of one or more conductive layers are formed on the portions of the resistive material exposed by the insulative coating to form a plurality of conductive pads on the resistive material between the patterned insulative material. The sets of conductive pads are probed to measure a preliminary resistance value between the sets of conductive pads. For one or more sets of conductive pads, a calculated amount of additional insulative material adjacent the respective conductive pads is removed based upon the preliminary resistance value between the corresponding set of conductive pads and a final resistance value to exposed additional portions of resistive material. The conductive pads and resistive material is cut at substantially the middle of each conductive pad to form pieces. A second set of one or more conductive layers are formed on the first set of one or more conductive layers at opposing ends of each piece, and the additionally exposed portions of the resistive material.
US09396845B2 Coaxial electric wire and method for manufacturing the same
A coaxial electric wire with an inner conductor, an inner insulating layer covering a periphery of the inner conductor, an outer conductor covering a periphery of the inner insulating layer, and an outer insulating layer covering a periphery of the outer conductor, where the inner insulating layer is made of a first insulating tube having an elongated cylindrical shape and an insulation performance, the outer insulating layer is made of a second insulating tube having an elongated cylindrical shape and an insulation performance, the outer conductor is made of a conductive tube having an elongated cylindrical shape and conductivity, the coaxial electric wire is manufactured by inserting the inner conductor into the first insulating tube, inserting the first insulating tube into the conductive tube, and inserting the conductive tube into the second insulating tube.
US09396844B2 Wire harness manufacturing device
To reduce the total stock of external parts in an assembling factory of a wire harness and to provide a wire harness manufacturing device including a wiring board that wires a plurality of electric wires and a molding machine that forms external parts attached to the plurality of electric wires in the assembling factory of the wire harness, a wire harness manufacturing device 1 includes a molding machine 2 that forms external parts 31, 32, 33, 35 and 44 attached to a wire harness 20 and a wiring board 3 having a binding device that wires a plurality of electric wires 40 to a prescribed form.
US09396839B2 Cable with improved flame retardancy
The present invention relates to a cable comprising one or more insulated conductors which are embedded in a bedding composition having improved flame retardancy. The bedding composition comprises a resin (A) and inorganic filler (B), which is a hydroxide or hydrated compound.
US09396832B2 Electroconductive paste for bonding metal terminal, electronic component with metal terminal, and method for manufacturing same
An electroconductive paste that includes an inorganic filler which contains a spherical Cu powder of 3 μm or less in average particle size; a flat Cu powder of 3 or more in aspect ratio and 10 μm or more in average particle size; glass frit; and a spherical inorganic powder of 30 μm or more in average particle size, the spherical inorganic powder including an inorganic material that is not melted in a heat treatment step for baking. The spherical inorganic powder is contained in a proportion of 10 to 35 parts by volume with respect to 100 parts by volume of a mixture of the spherical Cu powder and the flat Cu powder. In addition, the proportion of the flat Cu powder falls within the range of 10 to 50% by volume with respect to the total amount of the spherical Cu powder and flat Cu powder.
US09396824B2 Container system for radioactive waste
A container system, for radioactive waste and method for using the same is provided. The system includes a canister configured for holding radioactive waste and a lid system. In one embodiment, the lid system comprises a two-part lid assembly including a confinement lid and a shielded lifting lid. The confinement lid is detachably mounted to the confinement lid. In use, the lifting lid supports die confinement lid for lifting and placement on the canister. The lifting lid further shields operators while the confinement lid is mounted to the canister. Thereafter, the lifting lid is removed and may be reused for confinement lid mountings on other canisters. In one embodiment, the confinement lid is bolted to the canister. The canister may be disposed in a protective overpack for transport and storage.
US09396822B2 Emergency and back-up cooling of nuclear fuel and reactors
An embodiment uses liquid nitrogen, the densest and highly transportable form of nitrogen, and the cold nitrogen gas it produces when released from its container, for emergency cooling of fuel rods and nuclear reaction chambers.
US09396821B2 Safety system for a nuclear plant and nuclear plant with a safety system
A safety system for a nuclear plant includes a plurality of catalytic recombiner elements each triggering a recombination reaction with oxygen when hydrogen is entrained in an onflowing gas flow, so that reliable elimination of the hydrogen from the gas mixture is ensured with an especially high degree of operational safety even based on comparatively extreme conditions or scenarios of the aforementioned type. The recombiner elements and/or the flow paths each connecting two recombiner elements on the gas side are configured in such a way that a pressure pulse triggered in the gas medium by an ignition during the recombination reaction in a first recombiner element triggers a gas displacement process having a flow rate of at least 5 m/s in the onflow region of a second, adjacent recombiner element. A nuclear plant with a safety system is also provided.
US09396819B2 Single pass RF driver
The disclosed embodiments relate to ion delivery mechanisms, e.g., for fusion power. Particularly, some embodiments relate to systems and methods for delivering ions to a fuel source in such a manner to initiate fast ignition. The ions may be accumulated into “microbunches” and delivered to the fuel with considerable energy and velocity. The impact may compress the fuel while delivering sufficient energy to begin the fusion reaction.
US09396817B2 Self-repairing memory and method of use
A self-repair unit includes a self-repair address comparator configured to receive address information from a control logic circuit, and to compare the received address with a faulty address in a memory array. The self-repair unit further includes a redundant engine configured to re-direct access to a redundancy address in a redundant memory if the received address matches the faulty address, wherein the redundancy address corresponds to the faulty address in the memory array. The self-repair unit further includes a cache stack counter configured to determine a number of pending repairs in a corrected data cache connected to the memory array and to the redundant memory.
US09396805B2 Nonvolatile memory system with improved signal transmission and reception characteristics and method of operating the same
A non-volatile memory system and a method of operating a non-volatile memory system are provided. The method includes receiving a command from a host, generating a strobe signal using a clock signal, generating a command response synchronized with the strobe signal and corresponding to the received command and outputting the strobe signal and the command response.
US09396804B1 Memory programming method, memory control circuit unit and memory storage apparatus
A memory programming method for a physical erasing unit of a rewritable non-volatile memory is provided. The method includes: programming a first data stream into a first physical programming unit, wherein the first physical programming unit is constituted by memory cells at intersection of a first bit line set of the physical erasing unit and a first word line layer of the physical erasing unit. The method further includes: after programming the first data stream into the first physical programming unit, programming another data stream into another physical programming unit, and the another physical programming unit is constituted by the memory cells at intersection of the first bit line set of the physical erasing unit and another word line layer of the physical erasing unit.
US09396803B2 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory device, which restrains a breakdown of a low-voltage transistor constructing a bit line selecting circuit, is provided. An NAND string unit and transistors (BLSe, BLso, BIASe, BIASo) that construct bit line selecting circuit are formed in a P-well. The transistors are set in a floating state during erasing operation. The voltages of the transistors are increased when an erasing voltage is applied to the P-well. When the erasing voltage is discharged from the P-well, the gates of the transistors are connected to a reference potential via a discharging circuit (410) such that the gate voltage follows the voltage of the P-well to be discharged.
US09396801B1 Memory, and erasing method, programming method and reading method thereof
Memory, and erasing, programming and reading method thereof are provided. In the memory, a first isolation cell, a second isolation cell and a memory cell have same structure. A first doped region of the memory cell and a second doped region of the first isolation cell are connected with a first bit line, a second doped region of the memory cell and a first doped region of the second isolation cell are connected with a second bit line. A first doped region of the first isolation cell serves as a connection terminal thereof, first and second control gate structures of the first isolation cell are connected together to serve as a control terminal thereof, a second doped region of the second isolation cell serves as a connection terminal thereof, first and second control gate structures of the second isolation cell are connected together to serve as a control terminal thereof.
US09396797B2 Program methods of memory devices using bit line sharing
A program method of a nonvolatile memory device includes loading first word line data to be stored in first memory cells connected to a first word line and second word line data to be stored in second memory cells connected to a second word line; setting up upper bit lines according to the first word line data; turning off bit line sharing transistors after the upper bit lines are set up; setting up lower bit lines according to the second word line data; performing a first program operation on the first memory cells using the upper bit lines; turning on the bit line sharing transistors; and performing a second program operation on the second memory cells using the lower bit lines. The bit line sharing transistors electrically connect the upper bit lines and the lower bit lines in response to a bit line sharing signal.
US09396793B2 Phase change memory, writing method thereof and reading method thereof
A phase change memory (PCM), a writing method thereof and a reading method thereof are provided. The PCM has a plurality of memory cells. The writing method comprises the following steps. At least one stress pulse is applied for aging at least one of the memory cells. A starting pulse is applied to all of the memory cells of the PCM for decreasing a resistance of each memory cell. A detection pulse is applied to all of the memory cells of the PCM for detecting the resistance of each memory cell. A set pulse is applied to the aged memory cells. A reset pulse is applied to the non-aged memory cells.
US09396792B2 Adjusting log likelihood ratio values to compensate misplacement of read voltages
An apparatus having a circuit and an interface to a nonvolatile memory is disclosed. The circuit is configured to (i) perform one or more attempts of a soft-decision decode of data stored in the nonvolatile memory, where soft-decision decode uses a plurality of log likelihood ratio values stored in a table, (ii) generate one or more adjusted log likelihood ratio values by adding a constant value to one or more of the log likelihood ratio values in response to a failure to decode the data using the log likelihood ratio values and (iii) re-decode the data using the adjusted log likelihood ratio values.
US09396787B2 Memory operations using system thermal sensor data
Memory operations using system thermal sensor data. An embodiment of a memory device includes a memory stack including one or more coupled memory elements, and a logic chip coupled with the memory stack, the logic chip including a memory controller and one or more thermal sensors, where the one or more thermal sensors include a first thermal sensor located in a first area of the logic chip. The memory controller obtains thermal values of the one or more thermal sensors, where the logic element is to estimate thermal conditions for the memory stack using the thermal values, the determination of the estimated thermal conditions for the memory stack being based at least in part on a location of the first thermal sensor in the first area of the logic element. A refresh rate for one or more portions of the memory stack is modified based at least in part on the estimated thermal conditions for the memory stack.
US09396785B2 Memory device refresh commands on the fly
On the fly switching from one memory device refresh rate to another is provided. Control logic associated with the memory device detects a condition to switch from a currently-applied refresh rate to a different refresh rate. In response to the condition, the refresh rate is dynamically switched. The switching does not require a change of a mode register. Thus, a refresh rate for the memory device can be dynamically changed on the fly.
US09396782B2 Method for writing to a random access memory (MRAM) cell with improved MRAM cell lifespan
Method for writing to a MRAM cell including a magnetic tunnel junction including a first and second ferromagnetic layer, and a tunnel barrier layer; and a bipolar transistor in electrical connection with one end of the magnetic tunnel junction, the bipolar transistor being arranged for controlling the passing and polarity of a heating current in the magnetic tunnel junction. The method includes a sequence of writing steps, each writing step including passing the heating current in the magnetic tunnel junction such as to heat it to a high temperature threshold; and once the magnetic tunnel junction has reached the high temperature threshold, adjusting a second magnetization of the second ferromagnetic layer for writing a write data; wherein during one of the writing steps, the polarity of the heating current is reversed from one during the subsequent writing step. The method allows for an increased lifespan of the MRAM cell.
US09396779B2 Semiconductor memory device and operation method thereof
A semiconductor memory device includes a clock input block suitable for generating first and second internal clocks in response to an external clock, a clock correction block suitable for generating a data clock by correcting a duty ratio of the first and second internal clocks in response to a signal activated in an initial operation mode of the semiconductor memory device, and a data control block suitable for controlling data in synchronization with the data clock.
US09396778B1 Conditional memory calibration cancellation
A method and apparatus for conditional cancellation of a calibration procedure is performed. In one embodiment, a memory controller is coupled to memory. The memory controller is configured to convey data and a data strobe signal to the memory. The memory controller may conduct calibrations of a delay of the data strobe signal to ensure sufficient setup and hold time for the data. After an initial calibration, and at each of a number of periodic intervals, the memory controller may determine whether one or more parameters is within a specified range. If one of the one or more parameters is not within its respective specified range, another calibration of the data strobe delay may be performed. However, if each of the one or more parameters is within its respective specified range, the calibration may be canceled.
US09396771B2 Memory device for performing multi-core access to bank groups
A memory device has a burst length “b”, performs “k” core accesses per command, and receives a command, where “b” is an integer of at least 2 and “k” is an integer of at least 2 and at most “b”. The memory device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of bank groups, a plurality of bank group control units respectively corresponding to the plurality of bank groups, each of the bank group control units configured to generate a multiplexer control signal for selecting part of data read from a corresponding bank group, and a multiplexer configured to sequentially output data read from the plurality of bank groups according to the multiplexer control signal output from the plurality of bank group control units. Data items included in output data of the multiplexer have a same time space.
US09396767B1 Voltage division circuit, circuit for controlling operation voltage and storage device
A voltage division circuit, a circuit for controlling operation voltage and a storage device are provided. The voltage division circuit includes: a receiving transistor; a transistor group including m transistors connected in series; n type-one switches, each of which includes three terminals, the first is connected with a drain of a former one and a source of a latter one of two adjacent transistors in the transistor group, the second is connected with ground, the third is adapted for receiving a timing control signal; and n+1 type-two switches, each of which includes three terminals, the first is connected with a source of a transistor in the transistor group, the second is adapted for outputting a divided voltage, and the third is adapted for receiving the timing control signal. The voltage division circuit can save chip area, and work properly under a condition that the voltage to be divided is low.
US09396765B2 Stacked semiconductor package
A stacked semiconductor package includes a package substrate, an interposer mounted on the package substrate, a plurality of semiconductor chips stacked on the interposer, and a control unit provided in the interposer, that stores in advance data to be written in the plurality of semiconductor chips, and that outputs the data stored in advance according a test mode signal.
US09396758B2 Semi-automatic generation of multimedia content
A method for multimedia content generation includes receiving a textual input, and automatically retrieving from one or more media databases a plurality of media items that are relevant to the textual input. User input, which selects one or more of the automatically-retrieved media items and correlates one or more of the selected media items in time with the textual input, is received. A video clip, which includes an audio narration of the textual input and the selected media items scheduled in accordance with the user input, is constructed automatically.
US09396755B2 Temperature-defined data-storage policy for a hybrid disk drive
Data is stored in a hybrid drive that includes a magnetic storage medium and a non-volatile solid-state device using a temperature-defined data-storage policy. According to the temperature-defined data storage policy, the drive can perform operations for modulating the temperature of the drive, minimizing increased wear on memory cells in the non-volatile solid-state device, and/or preventing data stored in the non-volatile solid-state device from being lost.
US09396754B1 Write protect integrated picker
A data storage library is described that essentially provides a write once and read many (WORM) conversion device integrated with a picker device all of which are inside of the data storage library. One embodiment contemplates that after receiving a request to store data in a WORM arrangement on a tape cartridge in the data storage library a tape cartridge selected from a scratch pool of tape cartridges can be converted to a WORM tape cartridge via the picker device, during the normal activity of using a picker device to grasp the selected tape cartridge.
US09396753B2 Record-playback device
A recording and playback apparatus capable of recording a content downloaded from a server to a recording medium, and playing back the content, includes a recording unit configured to download the content with a playback time limit from the server and record the content to the recording medium, a playback unit configured to play back the content recorded in the recording medium, and a display data generating unit configured to generate data of a list image for displaying a list of information of each of part or all of contents recorded in the recording medium. The data of a list image is generated so that, before the playback unit plays back a content with a playback time limit, the list image includes information indicating an allowed playback period of the content, and, after the playback unit plays back the content, the list image includes information indicating the playback time limit of the content.
US09396752B2 Memory device activation and deactivation
Embodiments of methods and systems for controlling access to information stored on memory or data storage devices are disclosed. In various embodiments, methods of retrieving information from a data storage device previously deactivated by modification or degradation of at least a portion of the data storage device are disclosed.
US09396751B1 Data storage device compensating for fabrication tolerances when measuring spindle motor current
A data storage device is disclosed comprising a spindle motor configured to rotate a disk, wherein the spindle motor comprises a stator, a rotor, and a plurality of windings. The data storage device further comprises an isolation circuit configured to isolate the windings from a supply voltage, a head actuated over the disk, and control circuitry comprising a spindle motor driver comprising a plurality of switches including a first switch and a second switch configured to commutate the windings. While driving the isolation circuit with a first calibration current, the first switch is driven with a second calibration current and a first current flowing through the first switch is measured. While driving the isolation circuit with the first calibration current, the second switch is driven with the second calibration current and a second current flowing through the second switch is measured.
US09396749B2 Waveguide core layer with reduced downtrack thickness proximate a near-field transducer
An apparatus includes a write pole proximate a media-facing surface of a recording head. A near-field transducer is adjacent to the write pole. A waveguide has a core layer extending from an energy source to the media-facing surface. The core layer includes a region of reduced downtrack thickness proximate the near-field transducer. The region of reduced downtrack thickness is defined by a notch facing away from the near-field transducer. A material of the notch has a different index of refraction than an index of refraction of the core layer.
US09396748B2 Peg height of near-field transducers
A method is provided for characterizing the peg region of a near-field transducer incorporated into a write head of a HAMR magnetic recorder. The method includes providing excitation radiation to one or more near-field transducers. The near-field transducers include an enlarged disk region and a peg region at least partially in contact with the enlarged disk region. The method further includes filtering output radiation from the near-field transducers by passing a portion of photoluminescent radiation emitted by the near-field transducers in response to the excitation radiation and substantially blocking the excitation radiation transmitted by the near-field transducers. The method also includes detecting the portion of photoluminescent radiation and characterizing the peg region of at least one of the plurality of near-field transducers.
US09396742B1 Magnetoresistive sensor for a magnetic storage system read head, and fabrication method thereof
A magnetic read transducer including a magnetoresistive sensor is described, as well as a fabrication method thereof. The magnetoresistive sensor includes a cap layer overlaying a free layer. The cap layer is situated with a first thickness to absorb boron from the free layer. The magnetoresistive sensor is annealed, and boron is diffused from the free layer and absorbed by the cap layer, improving the magnetic performance of the free layer. The cap layer thickness is then reduced to a second thickness, thereby reducing the shield-to-shield (SS) stack spacing of the magnetoresistive sensor and allowing for increased areal recording density.
US09396741B1 Data writer side shield with cantilevered protrusions
A data writer can be fabricated by constructing a write pole to continuously extend from an air bearing surface prior to depositing a first gap layer to continuously extend from the ABS in contact with a first write pole sidewall. A first side shield protrusion can then be formed on the air bearing surface to be separated from the write pole by the first gap layer. A second gap layer may be deposited to continuously extend from the first side shield protrusion along the first write pole sidewall to define a dielectric region on which a second side shield protrusion is formed with the second side shield protrusion separated from the write pole by the first and second gap layers and the first and second side shield protrusions each cantilevered from a common side shield body.
US09396740B1 Systems and methods for estimating pitch in audio signals based on symmetry characteristics independent of harmonic amplitudes
Pitch in audio signals may be estimated based on symmetry characteristics independent of harmonic amplitudes. A magnitude spectrum of an audio signal may be provided. The magnitude spectrum may be partitioned by dividing a frequency axis into equal-sized cells. Individual cells may be centered on corresponding harmonic frequencies of a hypothesized pitch. The magnitude spectrum contained in individual cells may be normalized to have equal mean magnitudes and equal standard deviations. A likelihood that the hypothesized pitch is an actual pitch of the audio signal may be determined based on symmetries of magnitude spectra contained in individual cells.
US09396736B2 Audio encoder and decoder with multiple coding modes
In one embodiment, an audio decoder for decoding an audio bitstream is disclosed. The decoder includes a first decoding module adapted to operate in a first coding mode and a second decoding module adapted to operate in a second coding mode, the second coding mode being different from the first coding mode. The decoder further includes a pitch filter in either the first coding mode or the second coding mode, the pitch filter adapted to filter a preliminary audio signal generated by the first decoding module or the second decoding module to obtain a filtered signal. The pitch filter is selectively enabled or disabled based on a value of a first parameter encoded in the audio bitstream, the first parameter being distinct from a second parameter encoded in the audio bitstream, the second parameter specifying a current coding mode of the audio decoder.
US09396730B2 Customer identification through voice biometrics
Systems and methods for determining an identity of an individual are provided. Audio may be received that includes a key phrase spoken by the individual, and the key phrase may include an identifier spoken by the individual. A key phrase voice print and key phrase text corresponding to the audio may be obtained. The key phrase text may include text corresponding to the identifier spoken by the individual. Voice prints may be retrieved based on the text corresponding to the identifier, and the voice prints may be provided to a voice biometric engine for comparison to the key phrase voice print. The individual may be authenticated based on a comparison of the key phrase voice print to the voice prints. The identifier may include a first name and a last name of the individual.
US09396727B2 Systems and methods for spoken dialog service arbitration
Systems and methods for arbitrating spoken dialog services include determining a capability catalog associated with a plurality of devices accessible within an environment. The capability catalog includes a list of the plurality of devices mapped to a list of spoken dialog services provided by each of the plurality of devices. The system arbitrates between the plurality of devices and the spoken dialog services in the capability catalog to determine a selected device and a selected dialog service.
US09396723B2 Method and device for acoustic language model training
A method and a device for training an acoustic language model, include: conducting word segmentation for training samples in a training corpus using an initial language model containing no word class labels, to obtain initial word segmentation data containing no word class labels; performing word class replacement for the initial word segmentation data containing no word class labels, to obtain first word segmentation data containing word class labels; using the first word segmentation data containing word class labels to train a first language model containing word class labels; using the first language model containing word class labels to conduct word segmentation for the training samples in the training corpus, to obtain second word segmentation data containing word class labels; and in accordance with the second word segmentation data meeting one or more predetermined criteria, using the second word segmentation data containing word class labels to train the acoustic language model.
US09396721B2 Testing a grammar used in speech recognition for reliability in a plurality of operating environments having different background noise
Methods, systems, and products for testing a grammar used in speech recognition for reliability in a plurality of operating environments having different background noise that include: receiving recorded background noise for each of the plurality of operating environments; generating a test speech utterance for recognition by a speech recognition engine using a grammar; mixing the test speech utterance with each recorded background noise, resulting in a plurality of mixed test speech utterances, each mixed test speech utterance having different background noise; performing, for each of the mixed test speech utterances, speech recognition using the grammar and the mixed test speech utterance, resulting in speech recognition results for each of the mixed test speech utterances; and evaluating, for each recorded background noise, speech recognition reliability of the grammar in dependence upon the speech recognition results for the mixed test speech utterance having that recorded background noise.
US09396719B2 Method and device for synthetic generation of an acoustic signal
A method and a device for synthetic generation of an acoustic signal, proceeding from a control signal (AS) or a detection signal which is fed as input signal to a device for generating the acoustic signal, wherein at least one electromechanical transducer generates the acoustic signal by means of an electrical transducer excitation signal.
US09396718B2 Air conditioning unit
The invention relates to an air conditioning unit having an air duct, having a fan for conveying an airflow through the air duct, having a heat exchanger for the thermal conditioning of the airflow and having an apparatus for noise reduction, which apparatus has a microphone, a loudspeaker and an evaluation and control unit, the microphone being arranged in a housing indentation of the duct wall of the air duct, the housing indentation having a wall and the loudspeaker being arranged at least partially in an opening of the duct wall of the air duct in a manner which is spaced apart from the microphone in the direction of the noise emission, wherein the wall of the housing indentation is curved at least partially, the housing indentation of the microphone being covered with a porous acoustically transparent material.
US09396716B2 Whistle assembly
A whistle assembly may include a main body, a cord insert, and a cord. The main body may include a mouth-receiving end connected to a cord end. A channel may be formed through at least a portion of the cord end. The cord insert may include a housing having a cord passage. The cord insert is retained within the channel of the main body. The cord has an end that is securely retained within the cord passage of the cord insert that is within the channel of the main body.
US09396710B2 Fipple (mouthpiece) for a wind musical instrument and method of making a fipple for a wind musical instrument
A fipple for a bladed edge or labium lip resonated musical wind instrument, such as a tin whistle, Irish whistle or recorder, is constructed with a windway, blade and mouth. The two-piece tip and body fipple facilitates precise and accurate machined geometries. These geometries include but are not limited to chamfered windway openings and curved labium lips for extra sympathetic harmonics or “tone color”. The two-piece design also facilitates the use of two different materials, the tip may be constructed from a material that is comfortable and safe to hold in a human mouth and the body or blade material may be constructed from a metallic material to maximize volume and wind efficiency.
US09396709B2 Headstock for stringed instrument
A headstock for use with a stringed instrument. The headstock includes saddle receiving recesses which are positioned proximate openings which extend through a first surface of the headstock toward a second surface of the headstock. Saddles are positioned in the saddle receiving recesses. The saddles extend past the first surface in a direction away from the second surface, wherein the saddles and saddle receiving recesses cooperate with strings of the stringed instrument to direct the path of the strings.
US09396708B2 Crown top bar fret, stringed instrument including same, and method of manufacture
Stringed instrument having an elongated neck member optionally including a fingerboard, with a plurality of frets fixedly positioned at predetermined spaced locations along the neck. The frets include a tang and a mushroom shaped crown, each positioned and secured in a corresponding fret slot formed in the neck. The neck member includes a carbon fiber based support member that can be T-shaped. In its method aspects, the neck can be straight and of neutral strain or a desired backbow/underbow or curvature in the elongated neck member is created, such as by introducing a carbon fiber T-bar support member in the neck member in a “neutral” state while clamping the neck member in an underbow shape, or forming underbow directly into the finished neck in which a carbon fiber T-bar is already present, and then introducing crown bar style frets to wedge the neck back to an optimum playable shape.
US09396707B1 Device for positioning an acoustic accessory inside a stringed musical instrument and method of use
A device is disclosed for positioning an acoustic accessory inside a stringed musical instrument. The stringed musical instrument includes a body having a soundboard, a back, sides, and an internal cavity, the soundboard having a sound hole surrounded by an edge area. The device includes an arm which connects to the edge area, and which also connects to the acoustic accessory. The arm is movable so that the acoustic accessory can be positioned to a desired location inside the internal cavity. The acoustic accessory and its position change the sound produced by the stringed musical instrument.
US09396699B2 Color correction to facilitate switching between graphics-processing units
The described embodiments provide a system that facilitates a switch from using a first graphics-processing unit (GPU) to using a second GPU to drive a display. During operation, upon generation of a request to switch from using the first GPU to using the second GPU as a signal source for driving the display, the system obtains a transform (such as a lookup table) that enables the displayed color output from the second GPU to substantially match the displayed color output from the first GPU. The system then makes the transform available for use by the second GPU in driving the display.
US09396689B2 Driving method for a pixel array of a display
A driving method for a display is provided. This display includes a first driver, a second driver, a plurality of first signal lines coupling with the first driver, and a plurality of second signal lines coupling with the second driver. The first lines cross the second lines to form a pixel array with a plurality of pixels. The driving method includes the following steps. First, an image signal with a polarity is applied to the pixel array. The polarity is a first polarity or a second polarity opposite to the first polarity. Then, the image signal applied to at least one pixel of the pixel array is maintained in a same polarity during two successive frames.
US09396688B2 Image display device and method for driving the same
An image display device and a method of driving the same, which reduce the number of transmission/reception lines of image data using a multi-drop intra-panel interface as well as to improve the bandwidth use efficiency. The image display device includes: an image display panel configured to display an image by including a plurality of pixel regions; a plurality of first gate integrated circuits (ICs) located at a first side of the image display panel so as to drive gate lines of the liquid crystal panel; a plurality of data integrated circuits (ICs) configured to drive data lines of the image display panel; and a timing controller configured to arrange image data received from an external part according to odd-th data ICs and even-th data ICs, and sequentially provide the odd-th and even-th arranged image data to the odd-th and even-th data ICs using a multi-drop scheme.
US09396687B2 Method, apparatus, and system for controlling three dimensional displays
Method, apparatus, and system for controlling three dimensional displays are provided. The method comprises: acquiring a current time when a liquid crystal raster device is driven by a AC driving voltage signal; shutting down a backlight source when the current time is within a setting period of time included in an input period of the AC driving voltage signal, wherein the setting period of time refers to a period during which a polarity of the AC driving voltage signal changes such that an image crosstalk is generated when the backlight source is in a normal-open state. Since the backlight source is shut down and stops providing backlight to the panel when the current time is within the setting period, the panel displays black thereby left eye and right eye images are prevented from entering into error regions of view, the image crosstalk is reduced and a display quality is improved.
US09396683B2 Pixel driving circuit and display device
The present disclosure provides a pixel driving circuit and a display device, the pixel driving circuit includes: a control unit; a capacitor; a first transistor; a second transistor; a third transistor and a fourth transistor. The present disclosure can effectively compensate the variation of the threshold voltage of the drive thin film transistor by controlling the thin film transistors, thus prevent nonuniform brightness of a screen due to nonuniform current, and extend lifespan of the screen.
US09396682B2 Gate driving circuit, TFT array substrate, and display device
A gate driving circuit is disclosed. The gate driving circuit includes m stages of shift registers, where each stage of shift register includes a first reset terminal, a first input terminal, and an output terminal. A first input terminal of the first stage of shift register is configured to receive an initial signal, and a first reset terminal of the first stage of shift register is configured to receive a reset signal. In addition, first reset terminals of the second to i-th stages of shift registers are configured to receive first signals, where a first reset terminal of each stage of shift register is electrically connected to an output terminal of the previous stage of shift register to receive an output signal from the previous stage of shift register, such that the output signal from the previous stage of shift register causes the next stage of shift register to reset.
US09396679B2 Organic light emitting display
An organic light emitting display includes a display panel, which includes a plurality of pixels and displays an image, and a data driving circuit differently outputting a compensation voltage depending on a sensing value based on a driving current. Each of the plurality of pixels includes an organic light emitting diode, a driving thin film transistor (TFT) having a double gate structure including a main gate electrode and a sub-gate electrode, a switching TFT applying a data voltage determining the driving current to the main gate electrode of the driving TFT, and a compensation TFT applying the compensation voltage for compensating for a shift amount of a threshold voltage of the driving TFT to the sub-gate electrode of the driving TFT.
US09396678B2 Organic light emitting diode display device and method for compensating for luminance variations thereof
An organic light emitting diode display device includes: a display panel including a plurality of pixels in a display region, each pixel including a switching thin film transistor, a driving thin film transistor, and a light emitting diode, the display region divided into a plurality of regions; a diode current measuring portion electrically connected to the light emitting diode of each pixel and measuring a current of each divided region; a timing control portion obtaining a gain value of each divided region based on the measured current of each divided region, and generating compensated image data using the gain value; a gate driver supplying gate voltages to the display panel; and a data driver supplying data voltages corresponding to the compensated image data to the display panel.
US09396677B2 Display panel driver, display apparatus, and related control method
A display panel driver includes an adjustment value generation part configured to generate a first adjustment value and/or a second adjustment value based on pre-adjustment luminance values associated with pixels of a display panel, the pixels including a first pixel. The display panel driver further includes an adjustment part configured to receive image data associated with the first pixel for providing a first data signal. The adjustment part may generate the first data signal by adjusting the image data based on the first adjustment value if an input grayscale value associated with the first image data is greater than a reference value. The adjustment part may provide the image data as the first data signal or generate the first data signal by adjusting the image data based on the second adjustment value if the input grayscale value is equal to or less than the reference value.
US09396675B2 Method for sensing degradation of organic light emitting display
A method for sensing degradation of an organic light emitting display includes an initialization step for applying a sensing data voltage to a gate node of a driving TFT and applying an initialization voltage to a source node of the driving TFT, a boosting step for floating the gate node and the source node of the driving TFT and applying a drain-to-source current of the driving TFT to an organic element, a sensing step for again applying the initialization voltage to the source node of the driving TFT, setting a gate-to-source voltage of the driving TFT depending on a degradation degree of the organic element, and storing the drain-to-source current of the driving TFT determined by the set gate-to-source voltage in a line capacitor, and a sampling step for outputting a voltage stored in the line capacitor as a sensing voltage.
US09396674B2 Affinity displays for attachment to an exterior vehicle surface
Three-dimensional affinity displays for removably attaching onto an exterior side surface of a vehicle are presented herein. The affinity display may include an outer shell that helps shield a base surface from wind drag and weather elements while driving, helping to ensure that the affinity display remains attached to the exterior side surface of the vehicle. The affinity display may include aerodynamic features, such as a dome shape, and a drain hole to prevent water from building up within the affinity display. The affinity display may also include a detachable strap to assist with stability, and a recess in the base surface for attaching the strap to the affinity display.
US09396673B2 Solar-powered swooper/banner flagpole
A solar powered flagpole including a stationary base and a rotatably attached pole carrying a banner or flag illuminated by a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) lights in the pole powered by an annular array of photocells carried by the rotatable pole so the photocells are powered by sun power regardless of the rotational position of the banner and pole.
US09396672B2 Sign and sign suspension means
A sign, arranged to be mounted hanging from a wall, includes a rear panel (5) and a front panel (3) the peripheries of which are surrounded by a frame (6) in the form of an elongate, unitary or assembled member that runs sweeping about the sign while forming at least one joint (14) at which two ends (12, 13) of the frame meet, the sign being associated with a sign suspension element (16) including a bracket (17; 18) which is extended to reach folded over the frame from the rear panel upon mounting of the sign. The bracket (17; 18) is arranged for coupling to each of the meeting ends (12, 13) of the frame in order to fixate the ends of the frame under the bracket while simultaneously clamping the frame (6) about the sign (1).
US09396671B2 Enhanced tamper evident seal
A tamper evident seal includes a wire hasp, an insert and a body for receiving the insert and the wire hasp. The one leg of the wire hasp must be located in the channel in the insert prior to the insert being located in the body. A coupling structure for coupling the insert in the body includes angularly extending supports extending angularly outwardly upwardly from the sides of the insert for engaging indentations in the sides of the body for further preventing removal of the insert and the wire hasp once they are fully inserted in the body and in the insert, respectively. The insert of the seal further includes centrally located reinforcing extension members, each including a round base portion partially extending above base surface of the insert and a centrally located, flattened side tamper evident extension member extending from the round base portion and which extension member which will show a blemish if the insert is tampered after the seal is completed.
US09396666B2 System and method for dynamically applying line breaks in text
A system and method for analyzing a text, and automatically applying line breaks according to set page, text and reader parameters in order to optimize reading speed and comprehension. Line breaks in the text are determined in part using semantic principles, i.e., the strength of the semantic relation between the words in a sentence, or word co-occurrence frequency. Other factors include the size of the page or screen (for both offline and online reading), and the width of the margins (which establish the maximum length of a line, depending on character font and size). The present invention increases reading comprehension over various other line break methods.
US09396664B2 Dynamic content, polling, and proctor approval for online test taker accommodations
An aspect of the present invention relates to an online test platform adapted to facilitate the development, delivery, and management of educational tests with interactive participation by students, teachers, proctors, and administrators even when some or all of them are remotely located. The platform may include administrator interfaces, test proctor interfaces, and test taker (e.g. student) interfaces to allow each participant to view, navigate, and interact with aspects of the online test platform that are intended to meet their needs.
US09396661B2 Platoon travel system
A platoon travel system organizes and performs a platoon travel of plural vehicles along a preset travel route. The system has a grouping unit that divides the plural vehicles into a top group and a tail end group based on projection area information of the vehicles, and groups vehicles with a projection area in a first range to the top group and vehicles with a projection area in a second range to the tail end group, which is less than the first range. A final position determination unit determines a position of each of the plural vehicles in the vehicle groups based on the depart point information, positions the top group vehicles in an ascending order of depart point distances, and positions the tail end group vehicles in a descending order of depart point distances, thereby preventing deterioration of whole platoon energy consumption.
US09396660B2 Identification of driver abnormalities in a traffic flow
Driving behavior may be analyzed based on other vehicles in proximity to a tracked or monitored vehicle. GPS data is collected from the monitored vehicle and other vehicles in physical or geographic proximity thereto. A determination is made as to whether the vehicle in the physical or geographical area is exhibiting aberrant behavior. The aberrant behavior may be determined in view of other vehicles in the geographical area. If aberrant behavior is detected, an alert may be generated and transmitted to an administrator.
US09396659B2 Collision avoidance among vehicles
Collision avoidance among vehicles that each include a management module coupled to other management modules and a central database manager, includes: establishing, by management modules of a set of traveling vehicles having a location within a predefined area, a collision zone including a network of the management modules of the traveling vehicles; and sharing, within the collision zone, dynamic information describing the traveling vehicles; retrieving, from the central database manager, static information describing the traveling vehicles; detecting, by a management module of a first vehicle in the collision zone, a potential collision with a second vehicle in the collision zone in dependence upon the dynamic and static information; and controlling, by the management module of the first traveling vehicle, the first traveling vehicle to take evasive action in dependence upon the dynamic and static information describing the first and second traveling vehicle.
US09396658B2 On-vehicle information processing device
An object of the present invention is to provide an on-vehicle information processing device that is capable of sufficiently calling attention of a driver of an own vehicle. The on-vehicle information processing device according to the present invention includes: an other-vehicle position detector that detects a position of another vehicle existing in a vicinity of an own vehicle; a communication unit that acquires, via communication, other-vehicle information including driver dynamic information from the other vehicle whose position is detected by the other-vehicle position detector, the driver dynamic information indicating a current state of activity of a driver of the other vehicle; and a controller that controls calling attention of a driver of the own vehicle or traveling of the own vehicle based on the driver dynamic information acquired by the communication unit.
US09396656B2 Accident prevention system
A vehicle system may include a communication device configured to receive road data. The system may also include an application, having a processor and a memory, configured to analyze the road data in view of the at least one vehicle attribute included in vehicle data. The application may also determine whether the road data is relevant and transmit, in response to the road data being relevant, a command to a display unit to display information based on the analysis of the road data.
US09396653B2 Method and system for traffic resources allocation
A traffic lane control method for controlling lane traffic around an intersection is provided. The method includes dividing a road into one or more lanes. The method also includes providing a control line with a traffic light system or a lane control light system. Further, the method includes providing a control area with a pre-determined length before or after the control line in the direction of the traffic. The method also includes controlling traffic movement on the road by permitting a vehicle on one or more lanes to pass the control line, and controlling a traffic movement on the road by prohibiting a vehicle on other lane to pass the control line.
US09396652B2 Connection node providing supplemental bandwidth for mobile units
A connection node provides a high bandwidth connection on demand to mobile units that are in need of increased bandwidth for data transfers. In this manner, the connection node can supplement the bandwidth available to a mobile unit so that large volumes of data can be communicated to and from the mobile unit. A movable antenna automatically focuses its reception area on the mobile unit's location, after which, a high bandwidth connection can be established for high-speed data transfer. The high bandwidth connection is maintained, such as by tracking the mobile unit with the antenna, even if the mobile unit is moving.
US09396651B2 Auto-calibration for road traffic prediction
A method for auto-calibrating parameters in traffic prediction. The method includes determining a first subnet of traffic links that is associated with a plurality of traffic links in a traffic network. The method includes determining a second subnet of traffic links that is associated with the first subnet of traffic links and has a first traffic predicting accuracy value. The method includes generating a set of optimized traffic predicting parameters associated with the second subnet of traffic links, and applying the set of optimized traffic parameters onto a third subnet of traffic links. The method includes determining the set of optimized traffic predicting parameters used to calculate prediction results having a second traffic predicting accuracy value, and applying said set of optimized traffic predicting parameters to subnets associated with the traffic network. Further, the first traffic predicting accuracy value is lower than the second traffic predicting accuracy value.
US09396648B2 Apparatus and method pertaining to the use of wireless signals to control an appliance
An appliance wirelessly receives any of a plurality of different signals that comprise control instructions from a transmitter for a second appliance other than the appliance and of a different class of appliance. The appliance then provides, in the absence of learning, any of a plurality of different control instructions to be used by the appliance as a function of that received signal. By one approach those wirelessly-received control instructions relate to controllable functions for the second appliance. Pursuant to these teachings, the receiving appliance effectively converts a received control instruction that relates to one kind of functionality for a given kind of appliance into a control instruction that relates to a different kind of functionality and that is usable by a different kind of appliance.
US09396645B2 Systems and methods for automated personal emergency responses
A personal emergency response system implemented as a conference bridge on a remote computing network. Upon receiving an alert from an individual in need of aid, a conference including audio and/or video connection is established. A predetermined list of parties is coupled to the conference, including friends, caregivers, medical professionals, emergency responders and others as stored in a configuration database specific to the individual via a web interface. The database record may also contain vital information about the individual, in additional to demographic data, location information, history and other factual information. Medical telemetry may be obtained in real-time and disseminated among the conference participants. Other parties may be dynamically joined to the conference as needed upon a conference participant utilizing DTMF codes or other means to request the others to join.
US09396644B2 Systems and methods for managing lost devices
A method for a device to determine that it has been lost is provided. The method comprises the device determining its current location, the device comparing its current location to a plurality of stored locations, and the device determining that it has been lost when its current location is a stored location that has been designated as a location where the device is unlikely to be located or is not a stored location that has been designated as a location where the device is likely to be located.
US09396641B1 System and method for impact prediction and proximity warning
A system for predicting and warning of impacts includes a sensor located remote from a user and configured to acquire user data regarding motion of the user and object data regarding motion of the object; and a processing circuit configured to predict a potential impact between the user and the object based on the user data and the object data; and control operation of a user-wearable warning device to provide a warning output to the user in advance of a predicted time of the potential impact.
US09396639B2 Apparatus and method for managing operator alertness and enhancing operator effectiveness for industrial control systems
A method includes receiving activity data from a plurality of sensors associated with at least a portion of an industrial process system. The method also includes monitoring the activity data to identify a period of inactivity of all of the plurality of sensors. The method also includes responsive to identifying the period of inactivity, issuing an alarm.
US09396638B2 Hygiene monitoring system
A system and method is provided for monitoring hygiene compliance.
US09396636B2 Pneumatic pressure detector for a fire alarm system and method of insulating
A pneumatic pressure detector for a fire alarm system includes a housing having an internal surface defining an interior volume. Also included is an alarm switch located within the interior volume of the housing and comprising a first deformable diaphragm responsive to an increase in pressure of a gas disposed in a sensor tube to indicate an overheat condition. Further included is an integrity switch located within the interior volume and comprising a second deformable diaphragm disposed in contact with an electrical contact during pressurization of the gas within a predetermined pressure range and in an electrically open condition when the pressure of the gas is less than the predetermined range. Yet further included is a mica sleeve located within the interior volume of the housing and disposed along at least a portion of the internal surface of the housing to insulate the alarm switch and the integrity switch.
US09396635B2 Composite weldable panel with embedded devices
A weldable hybrid composite panel suitable for forming a container includes a four sided composite panel element wherein each side defines a side edge. The composite panel element is formed of fibrous reinforcement layers encased in a resin matrix. Weldable metallic elongated edge elements extend along and are either fixed to the side edges of an outside surface of the panel element or extend from a periphery of the panel element. Each of the weldable elongated edge elements has a profile that is the same as a profile of its respective side edge and is structured to enable the composite panel to be welded at its peripheral edges. The panel element also includes a sensor system embedded therein.
US09396632B2 Detection and classification of abnormal sounds
An audio surveillance system includes a plurality of nodes and each node includes a microphone, a speaker, and a control unit. The microphone is configured to detect sound and the speaker is configured to provide sound. The control unit is configured to receive a plurality of inputs from the plurality of nodes and the plurality of inputs are based on a detected sound; determine a location of the source of the detected sound based on the plurality of inputs; classify the detected sound according to predefined alert conditions and based on the location of the source of the detected sound; provide an alert to a monitoring device regarding the detected sound based on the classification of the detected sound; and control at least one node from the plurality of nodes to provide an audio response to the detected sound.
US09396629B1 Haptic modules with independently controllable vertical and horizontal mass movements
Electronic devices and methods for creating various haptic effects. In one example, an electronic device may include a first haptic module for creating a first haptic effect, the first haptic module having a first weight member that selectively moves in a substantially vertical orientation relative to the first haptic module; a second haptic module for creating a second haptic effect, the second haptic module having a second weight member that selectively moves in a substantially horizontal orientation relative to the second haptic module; and a processor for controlling the first and second haptic modules. In one example, the processor selectively activates either the first haptic module or the second haptic module based on one or more events or conditions, such as the current orientation or position of the electronic device.
US09396625B2 Alarm circuit
An alarm circuit includes an audio chip, a basic input and output system (BIOS), a platform controller hub (PCH), and a speaker unit. The audio chip is electrically coupled to the BIOS, the PCH, and the speaker unit. The audio chip receives control signals from the BIOS and the PCH, and controls the speaker unit to alarm according to the control signals.
US09396623B2 Easily installable home alarm system
A unique alarm system and mobile security system that utilizes the existing wiring in the area the user is trying to secure, and so it is very easy to install. The alarm system is when the security of the user's dwelling is breached, when the monitors are separated from each other, similar to a traditional alarm system. The monitors comprise one receiver and one magnet. The receiver and magnet are placed next to each other; one usually goes is placed on the window or window frame, door or door frame. The receiver sends a remote signal to the alarm system Debo Alarm System (D.A.S.) when the magnet is removed, saying that the window or door is open. The receiver or magnet can be stationary or movable.
US09396622B2 Electronic article surveillance tagged item validation prior to deactivation
A method and system for activating an EAS element deactivator is provided. At a computer, item data including a physical attribute of an item is received. A determination is made as to whether the item data corresponds to a purchased item in a purchase receipt. When it is determined that the item data corresponds to the purchased item, EAS element deactivator is activated for use.
US09396620B2 Money handling machine, money handling system, money handling method and valuable-medium handling machine
In a money handling machine 1, information related to a valuable medium to be stored in a storing unit 70 is inputted through an input unit 5. A control unit 50 of the money handling machine 1 transmits, to an external apparatus 200, a money recognition result by a recognition unit 40 and information related to a valuable medium having been inputted through the input unit 5.
US09396616B2 Gaming device having a free spin game
A gaming device including a re-initiation mode wherein the probability of extending the bonus game is increased by fixing the real or reels displaying a locking symbol on the reel. In the re-initiation mode embodiment, the gaming device reactivates some or all of the reels except the reel displaying the locking symbol for a predetermined number of additional free spins or until the reactivated reels display or Indicate a terminating symbol on the reels. The gaming device provides any outcomes associated with indicated symbols or combination of symbols. In one embodiment, if a terminating symbol is displayed on designated reels during one of the additional free spins, the gaming device re-initiates the bonus game.
US09396615B2 Gaming system and a method of gaming
A method of gaming comprising: (a) selecting a plurality of symbols from a source symbol set to form a selected symbol set for display at a plurality of display positions, the source symbol set comprising at least one removable symbol and at least one designated symbol different to each removable symbol; and if a removal condition is met, the removal condition including at least that the selected symbol set includes at least one designated symbol within the display positions; (b) removing at least one removable symbol from the source symbol set from which it was selected to form a modified source symbol set; (c) selecting at least one symbol from the modified source symbol set to form a modified selected symbol set; and (d) determining whether to make an award based on the modified selected symbol set.
US09396611B2 Interactive gaming among a plurality of players systems and methods
A system for interactive gaming among a plurality of players includes a host computer system and a plurality of player terminals communicably coupled to the host computer system via a network. The plurality of player terminals are located at a plurality of licensed gaming locations. The plurality of player terminals are configured to engage the plurality of players in a common interactive game operated by the host computer system. The plurality of player terminals include means for dispensing player winnings from the player terminal.
US09396609B2 System and method for gaming
A method of gaming comprises providing a jackpot game in addition to a main game, the jackpot game being displayed independently of the main game. Play of the jackpot game affects at least one of the awarding of a jackpot prize and value of a jackpot prize pool from which the jackpot prize is awarded.
US09396607B2 Method, apparatus and system for perpetual bonus game
Methods of playing games and gaming systems and devices useful for playing games. Gaming devices include a first gaming unit for randomly selecting and displaying indicia associated with play of a primary game and for generating a signal relating to play on the first gaming unit. The gaming device also includes a second gaming unit connected to the first gaming unit for conducting an ongoing bonus game and enabling participation by a player in the ongoing bonus game in response to a signal generated by the first gaming unit. The ongoing bonus game may be administered by and communicated from a second gaming unit in the form of a host server to a number of networked gaming devices. Players may enter and exit play of the ongoing bonus game while it is still in progress, participating only in a segment thereof.
US09396602B2 Method for paying out banknotes by cash machines and cash machine for carrying out the method
A method for paying out banknotes by cash machines and a cash machine for carrying out the method. For each banknote paid out to a customer, an individual characteristic feature of the banknote that distinguishes it from other banknotes is recorded. In addition, the data of the customer and/or the data for the paying-out transaction are recorded for each banknote dispensed to a customer. The cash machine is equipped with at least one sensor for sensing the individual characteristic feature of each banknote to be dispensed.
US09396600B2 Self-service system for paying in and withdrawing coins
A self-service system (10) for depositing and dispensing coins (108, 116) with a device for the input (12) of coins (108, 116) and a device for the output (30) of coins (108, 116). Means are provided which provide the coins (108, 116) to be output from the stock (18a to 18d) of the deposited coins (108, 116) in the form of a packed coin pack comprising a large number of coins (108, 116).
US09396596B2 Smartkey system and operating method thereof
Provided are a smartkey system and an operating method thereof. The smartkey system reflects an intensity of RF noise, which is detected in a zone having strong RF noise, in a fob indoor/outdoor position determination reference, and thus can prevent a determination error in which the presence of a fob is determined despite there being no fob registered in a vehicle, and prevent an operational reaction to a user's request from becoming slow.
US09396591B2 Remote monitoring terminal device for mobile work vehicle or vessel
Disclosed is a remote monitoring terminal device for a mobile work vehicle or vessel, capable of informing the user of maximum, minimum, and average values for each sensor and a turn-on count of a switch. The remote monitoring terminal device includes: connection terminals; a data abridging control section for computing minimum, maximum, and average values of data collected over a period from a startup to the latest data acquisition and of actual operation data on actual operation and an occurrence count and durations of a predetermined event, on the basis of operation-state data acquired via the connection terminals and stored in a data storage section; and a communications section. In response to a manual turn-off of a startup switch of the mobile work vehicle or vessel, the data abridging control section transmits data stored in the data storage section, to the remote monitoring device via the communications section.
US09396590B2 Image processing apparatus and method for three-dimensional image zoom
An image processing apparatus and method for zooming in on a partial area in a three-dimensional (3D) image selects a zoom mode from among a two-dimensional (2D) zoom mode, a 3D zoom mode, and an intermediate dimensional zoom mode between the 2D zoom mode and the 3D zoom mode. The image processing apparatus may include a mode selecting unit to select a zoom mode to be applied to a zoom area in a color image and a depth image among the 2D zoom mode, the 3D zoom mode, and the intermediate dimensional zoom mode between the 2D zoom mode and the 3D zoom mode, and a scaling unit to scale the zoom area using a zoom factor indicating magnification or minification of the zoom area and the selected zoom mode.
US09396584B2 Obtaining geographic-location related information based on shadow characteristics
A system and method is provided for determining whether images of a geographic location identify features with characteristics consistent with shadows cast by people, and using such determination to annotate map information. If such features are identified at the location, the map may be annotated to indicate that the location is frequented by pedestrians.
US09396579B2 Method for visualizing three-dimensional images on a 3D display device and 3D display device
A method for visualizing three-dimensional images on a 3D display device, wherein an image to be visualized is supplied as an input image, is characterized in that at least one feature matrix is determined using the input image, the feature matrices defining light/dark information, and in that a display image for reproduction on the 3D display device is produced from the input image using said light/dark information. The invention further relates to a corresponding 3D display device.
US09396577B2 Using embedded camera parameters to determine a position for a three-dimensional model
Embodiments relate to selecting textures for a user-supplied photographic image in image-based three-dimensional modeling. In a first embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes a method positioning a geographic structure using user-supplied photographic images of a geographic structure. In the method, a user-supplied photographic images inputted by a user are received. Embedded camera parameters that specify a position of the cameras when each user-supplied photographic image was taken and are embedded in each user-supplied photographic image are read. An estimated location of the geographic structure is automatically determined based on the embedded camera parameters in each user-supplied photographic image. Each user-supplied photographic image to be texture mapped to the three-dimensional model is enabled.
US09396575B2 Animation via pin that defines multiple key frames
Disclosed are embodiments for defining animation of content. One exemplary embodiment calls for receiving an indication of a location for an animation pin on a timeline associated with a content editing environment configured for editing content. The embodiment involves recording a state of the content in response to receiving the indication of the location for the animation pin, the recorded state of the content associated with a first time and comprising a value associated with a property. Additionally, the embodiment involves receiving a user input indicating an edited state of the content at a second time different from the first time, the second state associated with the location of the animation pin on the timeline and defining an animation based at least in part on the recorded state and the edited state of the content.
US09396574B2 Choreography of animated crowds
Techniques are proposed for animating a plurality of objects in a computer graphics environment. A crowd choreography system receives a first beat description defining potential motions for the plurality of objects, where the first beat description includes a first motion characteristic. The crowd choreography system selects a first object from the plurality of objects and selects a first value for the first motion characteristic based on the first beat description. The crowd choreography system creates a first motion path for the first object based on the first value and animates the first object based on the first motion path.
US09396570B2 Image processing method to superimpose item image onto model image and image processing device thereof
An image processing device includes an item image acquisition unit that acquires an item image, a model image acquisition unit that acquires a model image, a correction unit that corrects a tilt of a correction target region being at least a part of an item region being a region where an item is shown in the item image so that a direction of a center of gravity position of the correction target region with respect to a support position of the correction target region is along a direction of gravity in the model image, and an output unit that outputs the model image and the item region so that the item region is displayed superimposed on the model image. A composite image closer to the state where the item is actually worn on the human body is thereby provided.
US09396561B2 Correlation imaging for multi-scan MRI with multi-channel data acquisition
A framework is provided for accelerating multi-scan and multi-channel data acquisition in a clinical MRI protocol by estimating correlation functions from images previously acquired or reconstructed, with the same or with different contrast and resolution. Using an MRI apparatus, the method collects a plurality of prior MRI image scan data sets, obtains a current MRI scan data, and reconstructs the current MRI scan data set using an aggregate of the plurality of prior MRI image data sets. The method provided may optimize previously acquired MRI image data sets to reconstruct an MRI image scan data set and image.
US09396560B2 Image-based color palette generation
Systems and methods are provided for generating an image-based color palette based on a color image. A color palette can be a collection of representative colors each associated with a weight or other metadata. A color palette may be generated based on palette generation criteria, which may facilitate or control a palette generation process. Illustratively, the palette generation process may include image pre-processing, color distribution generation, representative color identification, palette candidate generation and palette determination. Representative colors with associated weight can be identified from a distribution of colors depicted by the color image, multiple palette candidates corresponding to the same color image can be generated based on various palette generation criteria, and a color palette can be identified therefrom.
US09396558B2 Image processing apparatus and method, and program
An image processing apparatus includes a modification processing unit configured to modify an input image by distributing a value of each of pixels in the input image over a two-dimensional distribution area having a randomly different size and direction in accordance with modification characteristic information for distributing each pixel over the distribution area. The modification characteristic information is information for modifying the input image using a modification characteristic which is randomly different for each pixel position.
US09396557B2 Apparatus and method for encoding image data
An apparatus for encoding an image data includes a sub-pixel rendering unit configured to convert a first image data of a RGB type, supplied from an outside thereof, into a second image data of a RG-BG type by performing sub-pixel rendering on the first image data, a first differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) processing unit configured to generate a first differential data including a differential value between gray scale values corresponding to green sub-pixels in the second image data, and a second DPCM processing unit configured to generate a second differential data including a differential value between a gray scale value corresponding to a red or blue sub-pixel in the second image data and an average value of gray scale values corresponding to green sub-pixels adjacent to the red or blue sub-pixel.
US09396548B2 Multi-cue object detection and analysis
Foreground objects of interest are distinguished from a background model by dividing a region of interest of a video data image into a grid array of individual cells. Each of the cells are labeled as foreground if accumulated edge energy within the cell meets an edge energy threshold, or if color intensities for different colors within each cell differ by a color intensity differential threshold, or as a function of combinations of said determinations.
US09396547B2 Output display for segmented digital volume representing porous media
A method for increasing the accuracy of a target property value derived from a rock sample is described in which the sample is scanned to obtain a three-dimensional tomographic digital image which can be processed to pore space and solid material phases through a segmentation process. A process is used which revises the segmented volume, e.g., by increasing pore space connectivity, in a manner affecting the target property value that would be derived. Another described method increases the accuracy with which a segmented volume represents a material sample having structure not adequately resolved in an original three-dimensional tomographic digital image. Further, a system for performing the processes, and a segmented digital volume which more accurately represents a sample of a porous media, are described.
US09396543B2 Information processing apparatus for watching, information processing method and non-transitory recording medium recording program
An information processing apparatus includes an image acquiring unit to acquire captured image of a watching target person and a target object as a reference for a behavior, the captured image containing depth information indicating depths per pixel, a foreground area extracting unit to extract a foreground area on the basis of a difference between a foreground image and the captured image, the foreground image being set to contain a depth of the foreground and a behavior presuming unit to presume the behavior about the target object by determining whether a positional relationship between the foreground area and the target object area satisfies a predetermined condition or not on the basis of referring to the depths of the pixels in the foreground area based on the depth information, the condition being set on the assumption that the extracted foreground area is related to the behavior.
US09396542B2 Method of estimating imaging device parameters
A method is provided for estimating parameters of an imaging device with respect to an image of a scene said method comprising the steps of locating a target coordinate system in a scene, using an imaging device to capture an image of the scene, and processing the image using the target coordination system as a reference to estimate the parameters of the imaging device with respect to the image, wherein the target coordinate system comprises at least one planer target and wherein the at least one planar target contains a set of identifiable features with known relative positions.
US09396536B2 Calibration system for stereo camera and calibration apparatus for calibrating stereo image
A calibration system for stereo cameras includes a rig control module configured to, when a camera calibration parameter is input, control an auto rig according to the camera calibration parameter to perform physical calibration for a camera, a stereo image calibration apparatus configured to calibrate a stereo image to acquire the camera calibration parameter, and output the acquired camera calibration parameter, and a camera control module configured to output the camera calibration parameter, which is input from the stereo image calibration apparatus, to the rig control module, or screen-output the camera calibration parameter. Therefore, physical calibration and image processing calibration for a camera are performed in association with each other.
US09396534B2 Medical image processing apparatus and medical image processing system
A medical image processing apparatus displaying at least one medical image obtained by imaging an object comprises: processing circuitry configured to detect a position of a characteristic local structure of a human body from the medical image, to determine check information indicating the local structure which should be checked; and to determine whether or not the local structure which should be checked indicated in the check information has been diagnostically read based on the position of the local structure detected from the medical image; and a display configured to display a determination result.
US09396533B2 Method, systems and computer program products for medical brain imaging analysis
A method for analyzing brain images includes receiving a plurality of three-dimensional image datasets comprising a plurality of voxels for a corresponding plurality of subjects; dividing the plurality of three-dimensional image datasets into at least a first and a second group; dividing the first group into A1 to An subgroups; dividing the second group into B1 to Bn subgroups; determining statistical individual variability between datasets selected from the A1 to An subgroups and the B1 to Bn subgroups; determining statistical individual variability between datasets in the first and second groups responsive to the statistical individual variability between datasets selected from the plurality of three-dimensional image datasets in the A1 to An subgroups and the B1 to Bn subgroups; and for each of the first and second groups, generating a reliability map comprising a map of probabilities that a voxel in an image dataset of the respective first and second groups satisfies a predetermined statistical threshold.
US09396530B2 Low memory content aware image modification
Techniques are disclosed for generating a modified image. A source image at an original, or high, resolution is downsampled to a lower resolution. One or more mappings between different patches, or regions, of pixels within the source image or across several images are generated from the downsampled image using a patch-based sampling algorithm. Such patch-based sampling algorithms may be used find correspondences between patches of one or more images by defining a nearest-neighbor field as a function of offsets for some distance function of the patches. The mapping is then upsampled to a higher resolution for coherent regions and used to identify fill content in the source image for filling patches in other portions of the image or other images. The fill content is derived from regions of the source image corresponding to the coordinates of the source patch in the upsampled mapping.
US09396529B2 Image processing apparatus and image processing method
An example image processor provides a distortion-corrected image including a masking area having improved appearance. The image processor includes: a masking area retaining section that retains a masking area set for an image having distortion; a masking execution section that performs masking processing for the image having distortion using the masking area retained in the masking area retaining section; a distortion correction section that corrects the image having distortion that is subjected to the masking processing using a correction parameter for correcting distortion of the image having distortion; and a masking area shaping section that shapes the masking area of the corrected image into a predetermined shape.
US09396528B2 Atmospheric compensation in satellite imagery
Techniques for atmospheric compensation in satellite imagery that include converting an image including an array of radiance values to an array of surface reflectance values. The conversion is performed in an automated fashion by identifying one or more portions of the image for which the surface reflectance can be estimated and determining the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) by iteratively comparing the radiance value captured by the image sensor to a calculated radiance value (based on the known surface reflectance, historical values for other atmospheric parameters, and the AOD) and adjusting the AOD until the calculated radiance value is substantially the same as the captured radiance value.
US09396526B2 Method for improving image quality
A method for improving image quality for display device has steps of inputting an image; computing a probability density function based on the image; generating a first luminance histogram; computing a weighing distribution function based on the first luminance histogram; generating a second luminance histogram through pixel redistribution of the first luminance histogram; computing a cumulative density function based on the second luminance histogram; computing a gamma conversion function based on the cumulative density function based on the second luminance histogram; and adjusting luminance distribution of the input image based on the gamma conversion function.
US09396523B2 Image restoration cascade
Image restoration cascades are described, for example, where digital photographs containing noise are restored using a cascade formed from a plurality of layers of trained machine learning predictors connected in series. For example, noise may be from sensor noise, motion blur, dust, optical low pass filtering, chromatic aberration, compression and quantization artifacts, down sampling or other sources. For example, given a noisy image, each trained machine learning predictor produces an output image which is a restored version of the noisy input image; each trained machine learning predictor in a given internal layer of the cascade also takes input from the previous layer in the cascade. In various examples, a loss function expressing dissimilarity between input and output images of each trained machine learning predictor is directly minimized during training. In various examples, data partitioning is used to partition a training data set to facilitate generalization.
US09396518B2 System of organizing digital images
A photography system uses electronically-readable software to process graphic objects that have been captured by a digital camera or scanned to an electronically-readable format for display on a square display screen. The images can be organized according to the aspect ratio, chronologically or according to other criteria selected by a user. The system operates to organize the displayed images in inform rows and/or columns on the page of the display screen and provides consistent per aspect ratio image size for horizontal and vertical images and unrestricted on-screen image placement.
US09396516B2 Method and apparatus for displaying ordinate abscissa value pairs on a display device
An apparatus for displaying ordinate-abscissa value pairs with discrete display points in the abscissa and ordinate directions determines an interpolated ordinate value at half the abscissa spacing between the respective abscissa value and the respective abscissa value of the display points to the left and right. A maximum ordinate value and a minimum ordinate value are then determined from the ordinate value of the respective ordinate-abscissa value pair, and the respectively interpolated ordinate values on the left and right. A random or pseudo-random ordinate value is then selected between the determined maximum and minimum ordinate values for every abscissa value of the display points. The ordinate resolution of the display points is thus reduced by comparison with the ordinate resolution of the ordinate-abscissa value pairs.
US09396515B2 Rendering using multiple render target sample masks
One embodiment sets forth a method for transforming 3-D images into 2-D rendered images using render target sample masks. A software application creates multiple render targets associated with a surface. For each render target, the software application also creates an associated render target sample mask configured to select one or more samples included in each pixel. Within the graphics pipeline, a pixel shader processes each pixel individually and outputs multiple render target-specific color values. For each render target, a ROP unit uses the associated render target sample mask to select covered samples included in the pixel. Subsequently, the ROP unit uses the render target-specific color value to update the selected samples in the render target, thereby achieving sample-level color granularity. Advantageously, by increasing the effective resolution using render target sample masks, the quality of the rendered image is improved without incurring the performance degradation associated with processing each sample individually.
US09396510B2 Watermarking different areas of digital images with different intensities
The disclosure relates to data hiding and digital watermarking in imagery. One claim recites an apparatus comprising: memory storing an image editing program; an input for receiving imagery, the imagery comprising image features that vary across the imagery; a processor configured for: encoding a pattern of 2-dimensional auxiliary data at a first intensity within a first multi-dimensional region within the imagery; and encoding the pattern of 2-dimensional auxiliary data at a second, different intensity within a second multi-dimensional region within the imagery. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided.
US09396508B2 Use of map data difference tiles to iteratively provide map data to a client device
To provide map data for rendering map images corresponding to a selected geographic region at a client device, a map server generates a set of base map tiles having vector descriptors, each of which indicates a geometry of a respective map element, in accordance with a non-raster format for rendering a first map image. The map server, at some point, provides the base map tiles to the client device. Upon receiving an indication that a specific map image for the selected geographic region is to be rendered at the client device, the map server further generates a set of difference map tiles that indicate changes to be made to the set of base map tiles and sends the difference map tiles to the client device for use, along with the set of base map tiles, in rendering the requested specific map image.
US09396504B2 Centralized control center for electrical network computational services
Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are provided for leasing electrical network computational services to one or more network control centers. A power grid may comprise one or more substations. Network control centers disposed within the power grid may be configured to manage the substations within the power grid. A remote centralized network control center may be configured to lease electrical network computational services to the network control centers (e.g., which may mitigate costs associated with including computational hardware and/or software within respective network control centers for performing such electrical network computational services). In this way, substation data received from a network control center may be processed by the remote centralized network control center according to a level of service subscribed to by the network control center. Computational results may be provided back to the network control center (e.g., in real-time).
US09396501B1 Multi-level following mechanic for a social network
Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for managing interaction between users in a social network. One method includes providing a user account having information that identifies a person associated with the user account. The method further includes receiving interactivity of the person on the user account. The received interactivity identifying endorsements made by the person utilizing the user account, and the endorsements made by the person are associated to a soft following metric. The method also includes identifying entities selected for following by the person of the user account. The selection for following triggered by direct action by the person on the user account to add an entity to one or more groups created at the user account. The selection for following being associated with a hard following metric that allows the entity having an entity account to post data to the user account of the user.
US09396499B2 Network based application management
An environment for facilitating the management of content for users associated with specific partner networks is provided. Users may be granted access to such specific partner networks in accordance with each user's affiliation with one or more organizations. In accordance with the above, a content management system facilitates the content/information exchange by accepting software applications from content providers. Additionally, the content management system accepts software application specifications or manifests from partner network administrators. Accordingly, the content management system can audit and recommend actions to users regarding applicable software application based one user organizational associations. Still further, the content management system can facilitate requests from affiliated users for specific types of content that can be forwarded to content providers and later made available to affiliated users.
US09396496B2 Methods, apparatus, computer program products and articles for use in providing human understandable indication of account balance
In accordance with some embodiments, a method includes receiving, in a proximity coupling system, holder consent to provide a human understandable indication of an account balance associated with a payment account; and providing a human understandable indication of the account balance associated with the payment account via an output device, in response at least in part to the consent; wherein receiving holder consent comprises receiving holder consent provided via a proximity payment device associated with the payment account. In accordance with some embodiments, a method includes storing account data and preference data in a proximity payment device, the preference data indicative of a preferred method to provide a human understandable indication of an account balance. In accordance with some embodiments, apparatus includes a proximity payment device, the proximity payment device including preference data, the preference data indicative of a preferred method to provide a human understandable indication of an account balance. In accordance with some embodiments, apparatus includes a proximity payment device wherein the proximity payment device generates data indicative of whether there is consent to provide a human understandable indication of an account balance based at least in part on whether a holder has actuated a switch.
US09396491B2 System, method, and computer-readable storage device for providing a buy option in search results when user input is classified as having a purchase intent
Disclosed herein are methods for providing a buy option to search results in a generalized search engine. That one location for a search field can be a website, an application, a search bar in a web browser, etc. Rather than navigating to a website to perform a search in the context of that website, a user can instead navigate to or open a generalized search field. Via the generalized search field, the system can analyze the input from the user and the resulting context. A buy button can be included a search result to the user input in the input search field. Payment for an item can be processing using a payment account registered with the system with delivery coordinated with a separate merchant via an application programming interface.
US09396488B1 Message selection in a marketing-based system
A message selection system may store message selection information. The processor may receive a request to determine a suggested message to transmit to a user interface. In one example, the suggested message may be selected to prompt a predetermined user-based response to be received through the user interface. Based on the received request, the processor may select a plurality of candidate messages from a plurality of messages included in the message selection information. The processor may select a numerical score associated with each of the candidate messages. Based on the numerical scores, the processor may select the suggested message from the plurality of candidate messages. A method and computer-readable medium may also be implemented.
US09396482B2 Data usage plan associated with user device
A method includes providing identifying application information associated with a user device in a network. The application information is information associated with at least one application running on the at least one user device. The method may further include identifying data usage information associated with the user device. The data usage information includes information associated with data used by the user device. In addition, the method may include associating the application information and the data usage information to determine application data usage for the user device. The method may also include identifying a data usage plan associated with the user device, and applying the data usage plan in the network based on the application data usage.
US09396480B2 Providing on-demand audience based on network
A device receives, from a client device, a first request associated with target audience criteria and a time constraint. Based on the target audience criteria, the device sends, to an information device, a network state request. In response to the network state request, the device receives, from the information device, a network state response including user data associated with user devices. Based on the network state response, the device determines a predicted network state, including predicted user data associated with the user devices, associated with the time constraint. Based on the predicted network state and the target audience criteria, the device determines a predicted quantity of user devices associated with both the target audience criteria and the time constraint. The device sends, to the client device, a first response based on the determination of the predicted quantity of user devices.
US09396475B2 Intelligent targeting of tags in a broadcast network
A system and associated methodology are disclosed for targeting tags in a broadcast network. The tags may be associated with an ad or programming. In one implementation, the tags to be delivered at a user equipment device are selected at the user equipment device, for example, based on location or other user classification parameters. In this manner, different user equipment devices that are on the same bandwidth segment in the same network subdivision can receive different tags.
US09396473B2 Searching within a contact center portal
New functions for a contact center system include: testing user's comprehension of informational messages with a quiz; capturing insight of superior users having a KPI score above a threshold by having those users submit information on why they perform so well; dynamically ordering solutions to issues by re-ranking the solutions periodically based on recency and frequency; integrating information for use by a contact center representative while online with a customer and information for use when not online; storing content items in a telecommunications industry taxonomy; directing user feedback on a content item to the proper owner/manager of that content; communicating solution information using a solutions taxonomy; displaying a dual information system having a CRM application as well as reference material that is context-appropriate; enforcing completion of a group of templates when creating a content item to be published; ensuring a group of templates for a content item are complete before publishing them; and searching within a contact center system portal using a continuum of search functions.
US09396467B2 Transaction card with security code generator and the method of the same
A transaction card comprises a substrate having an IC. An interface is coupled to the IC for signal transmission; a security code generator is coupled with the IC to generate a security code for banking transaction; an electricity generating button is coupled to the security code generator to generate the security code, a display is on the substrate and is coupled to the IC for displaying the security code. The electricity generating button includes piezoelectric material to generate electricity by piezoelectricity. The interface is contactless or contact type. The display is electronic paper, OLED, FED.
US09396462B2 System and method for roaming billing for electric vehicles
A vehicle charging station for use with a system for transmitting charging power to an electric vehicle is configured to receive a unique identifier from the electric vehicle and determine a preferred electrical charging power provider based on the identifier. Vehicle charging station is further configured to determine an account associated with the preferred provider and with the identifier, deliver a quantity of electrical charging power to the electric vehicle, and meter the quantity of electrical charging power delivered to the electric vehicle.
US09396458B2 Controlling content distribution
A computer-implemented method for controlling content distribution includes forwarding information associated with a user to a device operated by the user, the information being configured for use in selecting content from any of multiple content providers for a content distribution to the user. The method includes receiving, in response to the information, an edit of the information forwarded from the device. The edit identifies a first content provider and including a first modification of the content distribution regarding the first content provider. The method includes storing the edit in association with the information such that the first modification is taken into account in the content distribution. The method can be implemented using a computer program product tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage medium.
US09396457B2 Electronic note taking features including blank note triggers
Embodiments provide electronic note-taking and application features and functionality, but the embodiments are not so limited. In an embodiment, a computer-based method can be configured to provide note-taking features, including using blank notes as focus placeholders and resurfacing triggers. Other embodiments are included.
US09396454B2 System and method for providing real-time tracking of items in a distribution network
Systems and methods of processing items. Items in a distribution network or process may be scanned at every handling point in the distribution network, and each scan is recorded in a central repository. The scan information can be used to generate real-time access to data, analytical tools, predictive tools, and tracking reports.
US09396453B2 Waste management system for associating refuse bins to corresponding users
A waste management system for associating a collected refuse bin with a corresponding user of that bin. The system comprises a GPS tracker unit on-board a collection vehicle for recording the GPS co-ordinates of each refuse bin during refuse collection therefrom by the collection vehicle. A central server is configured for communication with each of a plurality of collection vehicles so that the GPS co-ordinates of each refuse bin collected during a refuse collection may be communicated to the central server. The server is further configured to effect a datastore lookup for comparing the GPS co-ordinates of the collected refuse bins with pre-recorded geographical data of a plurality of users for associating each refuse bin to a corresponding user.
US09396447B2 Systems and methods for monitoring a headcount
The disclosure relates to systems and methods for monitoring a headcount with RFID. Such a system can include a plurality or transponders, each transponder of the plurality of transponders associated with an offender. The system can include a plurality of radio frequency identification readers configured to transmit an interrogating signal to one or more transponders of the plurality of transponders and receive an identifying signal in response to the one or more transponders receiving the interrogating signal, the plurality of radio frequency identification readers associated with at least one programmable event, the at least one programmable event including a headcount. The system can include a server configured to receive data from the plurality of radio frequency identification readers through a network and determine if there is a discrepancy in the headcount.
US09396446B2 Modeling properties of data and events as transformations of document data and system values
A system and method for modeling properties of data and events of a business application is presented. The system include a user interface frontend system that displays a user interface, and a user interface backend system that hosts a business application that generates the user interface for display in the user interface frontend system. The system further includes an enterprise service framework comprising one or more data processors that define one or more properties of data and/or events related to the business application, and model each of the one or more properties as a data field of the business application. A dynamic properties calculator includes one or more data processors that access a set of transformation logic representing data transformation rules for each of the data fields of the business application, and apply the transformation rules to the data fields that represent the one or more properties.
US09396440B2 Systems and methods for solving combinatorial problems
Systems and methods to solve combinatorial problems employ a permutation network which may be modeled after a sorting network where comparators are replaced by switches that controllably determine whether inputs are swapped or are left unchanged at the outputs. A quantum processor may be used to generate permutations by the permutation network by mapping the state of each switch in the network to the state of a respective qubit in the quantum processor. In this way, a quantum computation may explore all possible permutations simultaneously to identify a permutation that satisfies at least one solution criterion. The Travelling Salesman Problem is discussed as an example of a combinatorial problem that may be solved using these systems and methods.
US09396438B2 System and method for remote activity detection
A system and method is disclosed for a remote activity detection process using an analysis of data streams of an entity such as an end user and/or a customer. In an embodiment, the detection process uses the data stream analysis to evaluate an entity's potential involvement in an activity based on individual measures for the entity such as comparison of the entity's data stream to the entity's peers, comparison of the entity's data stream to historical information for the entity, and/or comparison of the entity's data stream to data streams for a known second entity involved in the activity. The detection process may also use other information available which may impact the data points in a data stream, such as premises attributes associated with an entity, demographic attributes for the entity, financial attributes for the entity, and system alerts.
US09396433B2 Determining related data points from multi-modal inputs
Techniques, systems, and articles of manufacture for determining related data points from multi-modal inputs. A method includes collecting multiple items of multi-modal data comprising at least one dimension from multiple data sources, wherein said at least one dimension comprises a geographic dimension, a temporal dimension and/or an event-related dimension, determining a window of relevance for each of the multiple items of multi-modal data with respect to the at least one dimension, and identifying two or more of the multiple items of multi-modal data as related, by determining an overlap of the window of relevance corresponding to each of the two or more items of multi-modal data with respect to the at least one dimension.
US09396427B2 Removable tray integrated smart card and mobile terminal adopting the same
A removable tray integrated smart card and a mobile terminal adopting the same are provided. The smart card includes: a case configured to be removable into/from a smart card insertion slot of a mobile terminal; and a secure element provided in the case, wherein the case is removable into/from the smart card insertion slot without being placed on a tray. Accordingly, the smart card such as a USIM-card can be inserted into the mobile terminal without using the tray. In addition, since the size of the smart card increases as the smart card is unified with the tray, many high performance antennas and wireless modules can be inserted into the smart card and thus wireless communication performance of the smart card can be enhanced.
US09396425B1 Systems and methods for locating objects using RFID technology and alerting mechanisms
Systems (100) and methods (400) for an object (1121) within an area (102). The methods involve: receiving, by a Radio Frequency Identification (“RFID”) tag (1141) coupled to the object, a Radio Frequency (“RF”) interrogator signal transmitted from an RFID reader (108); processing, by the RFID tag, the RF interrogator signal to determine if the RF interrogator signal applies thereto; and performing operations by the RFID tag to direct a person's attention directly to the object by activating at least one alerting mechanism (220) electrically and mechanically coupled to the RFID tag when the RF interrogator signal is determined to apply to the RFID tag. In some scenarios, the alerting is additionally or alternatively performed by a beacon (110).
US09396420B2 Image forming system in which an image forming apparatus having an error event or a warning event enters a sleep mode and an image forming apparatus not having an error event or a warning event remains in a normal mode so that a user can be directed to the image forming apparatus with the error event or the warning event
An event detecting unit detects a specific error event or a specific warning event. An event notice transmitting unit transmits an event notice of the detected event to another image forming apparatus. An event notice receiving unit receives an event notice from another image forming apparatus. A status control unit is capable of changing the operation mode among a normal mode and a sleep mode. The status control unit changes the operation mode to the sleep mode or an out-of-service expression mode if the event notice is received in the normal mode. The out-of-service expression mode includes at least one of (a) putting off a light of the display device, (b) stopping a part or all of internal devices that make operation noise sound, and (c) denying reception of an execution request to a part or all of functions.
US09396419B2 Data-processing apparatus generating color conversion data
A data-processing apparatus modifies a part of a plurality of measurement values defined in a specified color space to acquire modified measurement values; and generates color conversion data by using the modified measurement values. A dark range is defined by lightness of a maximum chroma measurement value and includes a first color range and a second color range. The first color range includes at least a part of an outer layer corresponding to a target color range. The second color range is at least a part of a portion inside the first color range in the dark color range. The data-processing apparatus performs the modification to meet the following conditions (a) and (b): (a) lightness of each measurement value within the first color range is not increased; and (b) lightness of each measurement value within the second color range is increased.
US09396418B2 Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and storage medium for processing an image and a pattern included in an XOR-and-XOR rendering command set
An information processing apparatus includes a receiving unit configured to receive a pattern indicating positions of non-transparent pixels of a semi-transparent object; a multivaluing processing unit configured to perform multivaluing processing on the received pattern; a scaling processing unit configured to perform scaling processing on the multivalued pattern, and an applying unit configured to apply a screen to the scaled pattern.
US09396416B2 Card connector
A card connector has an inserted card module including electrode pads provided on one surface. The card connector includes a housing provided with connection terminals arranged so as to contact the electrode pads of the card module. The card connector includes a holding spring portion for holding a card module inserted into the card connector. The card connector includes an ejection mechanism able to change orientation between a first orientation and a second orientation. The ejection mechanism has the first orientation before a card module is inserted into the card connector, and the second orientation after a card module has been completely inserted into the card connector. The holding spring portion is displaceable when the ejection mechanism is in the first orientation, and non-displaceable when the ejection mechanism is in the second orientation.
US09396412B2 Machine-learnt person re-identification
Automated person re-identification may be assisted by consideration of attributes of the person in a joint classification with matching of the person. By both solving for similarities in a plurality of attributes and identities, discriminative interactions may be captured. Automated person re-identification may be assisted by consideration of a semantic color name. Rather than a color histogram, probability distributions are mapped to color terms of the semantic color name. Using other descriptors as well, similarity measures for the various descriptors are weighted and combined into a score. Either or both considerations may be used.
US09396411B2 Method and system for generating intrinsic images using a single reflectance technique
An automated, computerized method is provided for processing an image. The method includes the steps of providing an image file depicting an image, in a computer memory, identifying a dominant region of single reflectance in the image and segregating the image into intrinsic images as a function of the dominant region of single reflectance.
US09396409B2 Object based image processing
A method includes receiving image data corresponding to an image and detecting an object represented within the image. The method further includes selecting a portion of the image data that corresponds to the object and determining object quality values based on the portion of the image data. The method also includes determining an object category corresponding to the object and accessing object category metrics associated with the object category. The method includes performing a comparison of the object quality values to the object category metrics associated with the object category and initiating an action based on the comparison.
US09396408B2 Techniques for improving stereo block matching with the pyramid method
Techniques to determine a search range for a stereo based matching pyramid. A first disparity estimation value for a first level in a stereo based matching pyramid based on an image may be received. A search range for a second level may be determined using the first disparity estimation value. The search range based on a pyramid level of a second level may be increased. The search range may be increased based on a pyramid level of the second level. A second disparity estimation value may be selected from the search area for the second level. A depth map for the second level may be determined based on the second disparity estimation value. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09396407B2 Image recognition device, recording medium, and image recognition method
An image recognition device for recognizing respective types of display objects appearing in an image is provided, the image recognition device comprising: a change object selecting unit configured to select a change object, a target whose recognition result is to be modified, from the display objects and to determine that a type of each determined object is a type of one of recognition candidates which has the highest degree of reliability, the determined objects being not the change object; a pair object selecting unit configured to select a pair object from the determined objects, the pair object making a pair with the change object; and a recognition processing unit configured to modify the recognition result of the change object and to identify the change object, on the basis of a pair information list that indicates an object type associated with a type of the pair object.
US09396406B2 Method for recognizing and locating object
A method for recognizing and locating an object includes an offline mode process and an online mode process. In the offline mode process, plural sampled edge points of a template image of the object and respective gradient angles and a gravity position of the plural sampled edge points are obtained, and plural similarity score tables are obtained according to the plural sampled edge points, a predetermined detecting distance range and a predetermined gradient angle difference range. In the online mode process, plural edge points of a live image and respective gradient angles are obtained, plural predictive gravity positions are calculated, and plural similarity scores corresponding to the plural predictive gravity positions are summed up. The predictive gravity position with the local maximum of the similarity scores higher than a threshold value is correlated with the gravity position of the template image so as to recognize and locate the object.
US09396400B1 Computer-vision based security system using a depth camera
A method for securing an environment. The method includes obtaining a two-dimensional (2D) representation of a three-dimensional (3D) environment. The 2D representation includes a 2D frame of pixels encoding depth values of the 3D environment. The method further includes identifying a set of foreground pixels in the 2D representation, defining a foreground object based on the set of foreground pixels. The method also includes classifying the foreground object, and taking an action based on the classification of the foreground object.
US09396398B2 Computer vision collision avoidance in drilling operations
A system and method for automatically preventing a collision between objects is described. One or more images of a working space may be collected, and a first object may be identified based on the one or more images. Three-dimensional coordinates of the first object may be determined, and a virtual boundary enclosing the identified first object in a three-dimensional coordinate system may be generated based on the three-dimensional coordinates of the first object, wherein the virtual boundary specifies a volume in the working space that a second object in the working space should not occupy. The coordinates in the three-dimensional coordinate system corresponding to the generated virtual boundary may be transmitted to a second processor, and the second processor may control the second object to perform an operation in the working space that includes the first object without contacting the virtual boundary of the first object.
US09396396B2 Feature value extraction apparatus and place estimation apparatus
A place estimation apparatus performs a place estimation process by using position-invariant feature values extracted by a feature value extraction unit. The feature value extraction unit includes local feature value extraction unit that extracts local feature values from each of input images formed from successively-shot successive images, feature value matching unit that obtains matching between successive input images based on the extracted local feature values, corresponding feature value selection unit that selects matched feature values as corresponding feature values, and position-invariant feature value extraction unit that obtains position-invariant feature values based on the corresponding feature values. The position-invariant feature value extraction unit extracts, from among the corresponding feature values, corresponding feature values whose position change is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold as the position-invariant feature values.
US09396395B2 Image processing apparatus and image processing method, configured to apply threshold conditions to specify target pixel
In order to provide an image processing apparatus etc. that can precisely recognize multiple regions with density value fluctuation in an image with a simple operation in a process of recognizing a specific region from the image, a CPU performs threshold determination for a target pixel and the multiple pixels surrounding the target pixel (determination range) included in a three-dimensional original image by applying predetermined threshold conditions and specifies the target pixel as a recognized pixel when the threshold conditions are satisfied. The threshold conditions preferably apply different thresholds between a pixel on the same flat surface with the target pixel and a pixel on the other flat surface. By successively moving the target pixel (determination range) and repeating the above-mentioned threshold determination, it is performed also for the entire three-dimensional original image. This allows an operator to more precisely recognize a tissue with density value fluctuation such as a cartilage automatically without setting a starting point.
US09396394B1 Iris image data processing for template iris pattern generation
Systems, devices, methods, computer-readable media, techniques, and methodologies are disclosed for generating a template iris pattern using multiple image frames containing image data corresponding to detected light at different wavelengths along the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum including light in the infrared, near-infrared, and/or visible light bands.
US09396393B2 Digital video content fingerprinting based on scale invariant interest region detection with an array of anisotropic filters
Video sequence processing is described with various filtering rules applied to extract dominant features for content based video sequence identification. Active regions are determined in video frames of a video sequence. Video frames are selected in response to temporal statistical characteristics of the determined active regions. A two pass analysis is used to detect a set of initial interest points and interest regions in the selected video frames to reduce the effective area of images that are refined by complex filters that provide accurate region characterizations resistant to image distortion for identification of the video frames in the video sequence. Extracted features and descriptors are robust with respect to image scaling, aspect ratio change, rotation, camera viewpoint change, illumination and contrast change, video compression/decompression artifacts and noise. Compact, representative signatures are generated for video sequences to provide effective query video matching and retrieval in a large video database.
US09396392B2 Server, server control method, program and recording medium
A request receiver (101) receives a request in which image ID information and a parameter for image processing are specified, from a terminal. An image processor (102) acquires an image based on the ID information that was specified in the received request, and by using the parameter that was specified in the received request to apply the image processing on the acquired image, outputs extracted information that was extracted from inside the image. A response transmitter (103) transmits a response in which the extracted information that was outputted by the image processor (102) is specified, to the terminal. When the extracted information that is associated with the ID information and the parameter that were specified in the received request is cached, the image processor (102), instead of acquiring the image and applying the image processing, obtains the cached extracted information, and outputs the obtained extracted information.
US09396387B2 Image identification method and image identification device based on fingertip tracking
An image identification method and an image identification device are provided. The method comprises acquiring a hand feature region within a sight from a first view by skin color detection; acquiring a feature and a position of a tip of a finger from the hand feature region by performing a pattern recognition for a morphological feature of a stretched hand; recording an interframe displacement of a feature point of the tip of the finger when the tip of the finger delimits a periphery of a target object to obtain a delimiting trajectory from the interframe displacement, closing the delimiting trajectory to form a full-perimeter geometry; projecting the full-perimeter geometry on a plane where a direction of the sight is perpendicular to a plane where the target object is located to obtain a projection region, performing an image identification using the projection region as an identification region of the target object.
US09396386B2 Information processing method, system and electronic device
An information processing method, system and an electronic device are provided according to the embodiments of the disclosure, and applied to an electronic device having at least a first panel, with a first surface of the first panel being provided with a display unit and at least one image acquisition apparatus, where the at least one image acquisition apparatus is positioned below the display unit in the case that the first panel stands on a plane. After an image for a to-be-recognized object and the plane is acquired by the image acquisition apparatus, whether the object contacts the plane is determined based on the acquired image, and information about position change on the object is detected in the case that it is determined that the object contacts the plane.
US09396385B2 Integrated sensor and video motion analysis method
A method that integrates sensor data and video analysis to analyze object motion. Motion capture elements generate motion sensor data for objects of interest, and cameras generate video of these objects. Sensor data and video data are synchronized in time and aligned in space on a common coordinate system. Sensor fusion is used to generate motion metrics from the combined and integrated sensor data and video data. Integration of sensor data and video data supports robust detection of events, generation of video highlight reels or epic fail reels augmented with metrics that show interesting activity, and calculation of metrics that exceed the individual capabilities of either sensors or video analysis alone.
US09396375B2 Multiple platform support system and method
A portable data terminal including a processor having an instruction set architecture and data storage means configured to store a plurality of operating systems and a virtual machine monitor application program configured to receive at least one instruction from each operating system, communicate with the processor according to the instruction set architecture, and switch operating system access to the processor upon receipt of an electrical signal representing an event.
US09396374B2 Methods and systems for GPS-enabled baggage tags
An electronic baggage tag is self-reliant and self-regulating and provides the underlying foundation for a baggage tracking and management system, the center of which operates one or more tag service provider servers. The tag is attached to a baggage and is loaded with various data, including passenger itinerary, GPS data, and journey profile data. The tag has sensors, such for detecting different vibrations, electro-magnetic sensor, GPS, and others. As the baggage to which the tag is attached goes on its journey, the sensors detect stimuli and ascertain where in the journey the baggage is and use itinerary and other data to determine where the baggage should be. The tag service provider server communicates with the tag at various stages in the journey, providing up-to-date itinerary data to the tag. The tag automatically shuts off to be compliant with government regulations for devices in flight.
US09396371B2 Non-contact type information processing device
A non-contact type information processing device may include a flat plate-shaped substrate on which a communication antenna formed in a ring shape and a signal processing circuit part electrically connected with the communication antenna are mounted; and a connector member structured to electrically connect a host device on which the non-contact type information processing device is mounted with the non-contact type information processing device. The signal processing circuit part may be mounted on the substrate on an outer peripheral side relative to the communication antenna formed in the ring shape; and the connector member may be mounted on the substrate on an inner peripheral side relative to the communication antenna formed in the ring shape so that an inserting direction of a second connector member which is inserted and connected with the connector member is substantially parallel to a thickness direction of the substrate.
US09396367B2 System and method for synchronizing RFID readers utilizing RF or modulation signals
A system and method are disclosed for synchronizing two RFID readers. The system includes a modulation detector to detect a modulated signal produced by a first of the two reader and produces a synchronization signal. The second of the two readers initiates transmission of a signal in response to the synchronization signal.
US09396364B2 Device and method for short range communication
There is provided a communication device and method for contactless short range communication between a device and a terminal. An exemplary communication device comprises a communication component for contactless short range communication with a terminal. The exemplary device also comprises a slave element adapted to execute at least one application for executing transactions between the communication component and the terminal, wherein the slave element is coupled to the communication component via a first interface and wherein the slave element can be coupled to a secure master element via a second interface, the master element being adapted to control the slave element before a transaction is executed using the application.
US09396356B2 Endorsement of unmodified photographs using watermarks
A method, device and system of a watermarking server authenticates a user in a watermarking application of a mobile device as the user of a trusted third-party communication platform. The method determines whether a photograph is captured using a front camera or a back camera of the mobile device. The method assigns a unique identifier to the photograph so that the photograph is referenceable using the unique identifier, in case of post-modification by at least one of the user and other users of the trusted third-party communication platform. The method generates a watermark applicable to the photograph, and generates a trusted image based on the photograph by appending the watermark and the unique identifier to the photograph using a processor and a memory of the watermarking server. The method automatically posts the trusted image to the trusted third-party communication platform.
US09396347B2 Providing status of site access requests
Concepts and technologies are described herein for providing status of site access requests. In accordance with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, a user attempts to access functionality of a server application that is limited to authorized users. In response to the access attempt, the server application determines if the user is authorized to access the functionality and if the user has previously requested access to the functionality. If the user has not previously requested access to the application, the server application can present a user interface to the user for requesting access to the server application. If the user has previously requested access to the application, the server application can present an indication that an access request already exists, history and status information associated with the access request, and/or an interface for submitting messages to the site owner or other entity.
US09396345B2 Electronic data sharing device and method of use
An electronic data sharing device configured to exchange a first tag with a corresponding tag from a further electronic data sharing device, wherein the first and second tags provide information that enables respective users of the electronic data sharing devices to share information via a server enabled internet-connected software system associated with the electronic data sharing devices, wherein the electronic data sharing device is either configured with a pre-shared key or is able to encrypt a session key, wherein the pre-shared key or session key are used to generate tags to ensure that: the electronic data sharing device and tags can only be made use of by the server.
US09396341B1 Data encryption in a de-duplicating storage in a multi-tenant environment
The present invention addresses encryption systems and methods in the de-duplication of data in a multi-tenant environment. The system provides isolation between tenants' stored data and the storage system. The tenants' data is broken down into many smaller raw data items. Fingerprints are generated for the raw data and compared to fingerprints of raw data previously stored on the storage system. The raw data and fingerprint are encrypted with a single use key (SUK) by the storage system. The SUK encrypted fingerprint is wrapped with a storage system key and stored with other fingerprints. The SUK encrypted fingerprint is also returned to the tenants and wrapped with a tenant key. The use of tenant key wraps allows the tenant data to be protected and confidential to each tenant but allows the raw data to be shared by all tenants.
US09396340B2 Method for encrypting a 3D model file and system thereof
The invention discloses a method for encrypting a 3D model file and system thereof. The system of the invention comprises a data reading module used to read data of the 3D model file; a mesh shifting module for selecting at least one triangle mesh and shifting the coordinates of the vertexes of the selected triangle mesh by a vector; a gap filling module for filling a gap generated from shifting the vertexes of the selected triangle mesh by the vector to generate a revised 3D model file; and a model generating module for storing the revised 3D model file to generate an encrypted 3D model file. Compared to the prior art, the invention provides the users for previewing the 3D model file, and the invention only provides the authorized users for correctly printing the original 3D model. Therefore, the invention can achieve the purpose for encrypting the 3D model file.
US09396338B2 Method and system for providing a secure secrets proxy
A secure secrets proxy is instantiated in a first computing environment and includes secure secrets proxy authentication data for identifying itself to a secrets distribution management system in a second computing environment as a trusted virtual asset to receive and cache secrets data in a secure secrets cache outside the second computing environment. The secure secrets proxy requests one or more secrets to be cached and is then provided data representing the requested secrets in the secure secrets cache. The secure secrets proxy then receives secrets application request data from a second virtual asset instantiated in the first computing environment requesting one or more secrets be applied to second virtual asset data. The secure secrets proxy then obtains the required secrets from the secure secrets cache and coordinates the application of the secrets to the second virtual asset data.
US09396334B1 System and method for detecting harmful files executable on a virtual stack machine
Disclosed are method and system for detecting harmful files executed by a virtual stack machine. An example method includes: identifying data from a file executed on the virtual stack machine, the data including parameters of a file section of the file and/or parameters of a function of the file; searching in a database for at least one cluster of safe files that contains at least one of: a value of the parameters of the file section exceeding a first threshold, and a value of the parameters of the function exceeding a second threshold; creating a cluster of data of the file based on the identified cluster of safe files; calculating a checksum of the created cluster of data of the file; and determining that the file is a harmful file if the computed checksum matches a checksum in a database of checksums of harmful files.
US09396331B2 Systems and methods for security management based on cursor events
Systems and methods for security management based on cursor events. Click coordinates on a webpage of user's activity are logged in order to detect multiple or repeated transactions that bare the same exact coordinates. Such multiple or repeated activity may be helpful in detecting scripted attacks or bot net activity in a variety of environments and transactions. Further, the invention may also capture the coordinates of the location of submit buttons, and similar buttons, on a webpage to analyze whether a click action or other pointer action occurred within the button's parameters.
US09396327B2 Systems and methods for security verification in electronic learning systems and other systems
The embodiments described herein relate to security verification systems and methods. In some aspects, there is provided a security verification server comprising a server processor. The server processor is adapted to provide at least one account identifier, receive at least one command for execution, determine whether to activate one or more available additional permission sets to execute the received command, and if it is determined that one or more additional permission sets should be activated to execute the received command, activate those permission sets by executing the security verification processes associated therewith.
US09396325B2 Provisioning an app on a device and implementing a keystore
A keystore is installed on a mobile app where the keystore is created and provisioned on a server, such as an app wrapping server, under the control of an enterprise. A generic (non-provisioned) wrapped app is installed on a device. The app prompts the user to enter a passphrase. When the user does this, an app keystore is created. It has a user section and a table of contents. The keystore files are hashed, creating “first” keystore hash values. The first keystore hash values are stored in the TOC. The TOC is then hashed, creating a TOC hash value. The passphrase entered by the user is then combined with the TOC hash value. This creates a “first” master passphrase for the keystore. The keystore is then transmitted to the device where it is installed in the generic (non-provisioned) wrapped app.
US09396323B2 Unauthorized account access lockout reduction
A method and system for determining unauthorized account access is provided. The method includes receiving a username of a user and a passcode for access to a secure account or device belonging to a user. The passcode is determined to be incorrect. Unauthorized access attempts with respect to the secure account or the device are determined based on based on the incorrect passcode and in response, a quality factor associated with the incorrect passcode with respect to the secure account or device is determined. The quality factor is compared to a threshold value. Security functions associated with the secure account or device with respect to the incorrect passcode and the results of the comparison are performed based on the quality factor and the unauthorized access attempts.
US09396322B2 Authentication mechanism
A computer-implemented method for preventing password leakage into a non-password field includes detecting that a user of an electronic device has entered a character in a non-password field appearing on a display associated with the electronic device. The character is echoed to at least the display, and stored to provide a stored character string. The stored character string is compared to a set of valid entries for the non-password field, when length of the stored character string reaches a predetermined threshold value. An alert is transmitted when the stored character string fails to match at least a substring of an element of the set of valid entries for the non-password field.
US09396320B2 System and method for non-intrusive, privacy-preserving authentication
A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for non-intrusive privacy-preserving authentication. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: entering into a legitimate user state on a client device for a time period following an explicit authentication by an end user; recording reference data related to user behavior while in the legitimate user state; measuring user behavior when outside of the legitimate user state and arriving at an authentication assurance level based on a distance between the measured user behavior and the recorded reference data; in response to an authentication request within the legitimate user state, providing an authentication assurance level at or above a defined threshold, the authentication assurance level being sufficient to authenticate the user to a relying party; and in response to an authentication request while outside of the legitimate user state, providing the authentication assurance level based on a distance between the measured user behavior and the recorded reference data.
US09396314B2 Method for remotely locking/unlocking a machine
A method for changing the status, locked or unlocked, of a target machine including a security service and a session management module includes receiving, by the security service, a query corresponding to a request to change the status of the target machine, the query including at least one piece of identification information from a user of a source machine; from the security service, verifying if access rights to the target machine related to the user of the source machine allow a change in the status of the target machine by the user; if so, sending, from the security service, a status change message to the session management module of the target machine and proceeding to the status change made by the session management module.
US09396311B2 Mini appliance ensuring software license compliance
In one embodiment, a method comprises: collecting software information from one or more network devices; and analyzing the software information to ensure software license compliance for the one or more network devices.
US09396307B2 Systems and methods for interruption workflow management
Certain embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for interruption workflow management in a clinical enterprise. Certain embodiments provide an interruption workflow management system for a clinical enterprise. The system includes a worklist including a plurality of patient indicators representing patients for which tasks are to be performed by a user. The system also includes a patient panel displaying patient information associated with a patient indicator selected from the worklist. The system further includes a patient indicator shelf holding one or more patient indicators from at least one of the worklist and the patient panel for later retrieval in response to user input. The patient indicator shelf facilitates restoration of a patient indicator from the patient indicator shelf to display in the patient panel in response to user input.
US09396303B2 Implementing enhanced performance dynamic evaluation circuit by combining precharge and delayed keeper
A method and circuit for implementing enhanced performance dynamic evaluation, and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. The dynamic evaluation circuit includes a combined precharge and keeper device connected to a precharge node. The dynamic evaluation circuit includes control logic providing a control input to the combined precharge and keeper device. The combined precharge and keeper device responsive to the control input holds the precharge node precharged when the precharge node is not discharged early in an evaluate cycle.
US09396294B1 Method of modeling and simulation of shaped external occulters
The present invention relates to modeling an external occulter including: providing at least one processor executing program code to implement a simulation system, the program code including: providing an external occulter having a plurality of petals, the occulter being coupled to a telescope; and propagating light from the occulter to a telescope aperture of the telescope by scalar Fresnel propagation, by: obtaining an incident field strength at a predetermined wavelength at an occulter surface; obtaining a field propagation from the occulter to the telescope aperture using a Fresnel integral; modeling a celestial object at differing field angles by shifting a location of a shadow cast by the occulter on the telescope aperture; calculating an intensity of the occulter shadow on the telescope aperture; and applying a telescope aperture mask to a field of the occulter shadow, and propagating the light to a focal plane of the telescope via FFT techniques.
US09396289B2 Method and apparatus for unrestricted reporting of alert states for managed objects, regardless of type
A method of identifying a unique object nested within a hierarchy of objects in a computing system. The computing system identifies the unique object by its class and instance in a syntax readable by the computing system. The method identifies at least one parent object by its class and instance in the syntax and defines a relationship between the unique object and the parent object in the syntax. An computing system is used for identifying a unique object nested within a hierarchy of objects in the computing system. The computing system includes a first identify module, a second identify module, and a define module, The first identify module identifies the unique object by its class. The second identify module identifies at least one parent object by its class and instance in the syntax. And, the define module that defines a relationship between the unique object and the parent object in the syntax. An alert can be issued for the unique object.
US09396288B2 Ranking of address book contacts based on social proximity
In one embodiment, a user of a social networking system requests to look up an address book maintained by the social networking system. The social networking system improves the look up search results by ranking one or more contacts in the address book based on social graph, social relationship and communication history information.
US09396285B1 Ensuring data maintenance within a LDAP environment
An approach for tracking system changes to support data maintenance within a directory service environment. Log fields are added to a directory service database for applications that interface with a directory service environment based on predetermined fields to be tracked. The log fields are updated to register database schema fields and data associated with the applications to create a history of changes. An application's identity and data access to the directory service environment are monitored and the log fields are updated to create a history of usage. The directory service database history of usage and changes are analyzed to determine applications relationship dependencies and usage information. Associated maintenance actions are identified by detecting conditions in the directory service environment, based on predetermined maintenance criteria and maintenance is performed.
US09396279B1 Collaborative virtual markup
A system and computer-implemented method for collaborative markup of digital media such as an Internet website are disclosed. In one embodiment, multiple users can collaboratively and create, view, markup, and revise the contents and layout of a retrieved website or webpage in real-time prior to publication or production release.
US09396277B2 Access to supplemental data based on identifier derived from corresponding primary application data
Primary data for an application is stored at a remotely located first server such as cloud storage. A user of the application may wish to modify or add to the primary data to create supplemental data for which storage is not supported in the first server. Configurations herein include a way to store the supplemental data (e.g., edits, additions, etc.) on a second server at a second storage service provider (e.g. a corporate intranet). Different instances of the application executing on different computer devices by that same user can retrieve the primary data from the first storage service provider as well as retrieve the supplemental data from the second storage service provider.
US09396273B2 Forensic system, forensic method, and forensic program
A forensic system includes a result information receiving unit that receives result information which is a determination result of connection between a lawsuit and a document group including a predetermined number of documents, which is extracted from document data included in digital information, by a user, an element selection unit that calculates evaluation values of elements which commonly appear in the document group in each result information item from the characteristics of the elements and selects the elements on the basis of the evaluation values, a score calculation unit that calculates a score of each document in the document data from the selected elements included in each document of the document data and the evaluation values of the selected elements, and a recall ratio calculation unit that calculates a recall ratio related to the determination of the connection to the lawsuit on the basis of the score.
US09396271B2 Global reverse lookup public opinion directory
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to web resource metadata creation and utility and provide a method, system and computer program product for transforming articles that create subjective metadata used for discovery into articles that create mathematical data that is inherently dynamic, global, composed of auditable elements, conducive to relational cross-reference, and utilized to capture public opinion and produce statistical opinion data and rankings.
US09396270B2 Context aware recommendation
In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, systems and methods are provided for managing context aware recommendations by providing recommendations to a user in response to a query related to the user by integrating contextual information of a context related to the user in a recommendation model while considering a granular structure of the context and the contextual information thereof.
US09396267B2 Semantic zoom for related content
Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are provided for displaying a related content view within a search interface. That is, a search interface, such as a search application, may provide search results that are relevant to a query submitted through the search interface. For example, a main search engine results view comprising one or more search results of the query may be presented within the search interface. Responsive to a semantic zoom operation (e.g., a touch gesture), the search interface may be transitioned from the main search engine results view to a related content view comprising related content that corresponds to the query and/or a (e.g., supplemental) search result for the query. In this way, the user may explore supplemental content, such as query suggestions, images, entity descriptions/profiles, videos, and/or other content, that may be related to a query submitted by the user.
US09396265B2 Method and apparatus for aquiring dynamic message
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for obtaining dynamic information. In the method, a first client of a first user obtains a relationship chain of the first user, wherein the relationship chain of the first user comprises at least one second user; determines an active degree of the at least one second user in a preset first time period, determines a time interval reference value of requesting dynamic information according to the active degree, determines an information updating degree of the at least one second user in a preset second time interval, determining a time interval adjustment value of requesting the dynamic information based on the information updating degree; determines a time interval value according to the time interval reference value and the time interval adjustment value of requesting the dynamic information, and requests the dynamic information of the at least one second user according to the time interval value of requesting the dynamic information. Thus, a balance between a real-time performance and an amount of service requests is performed, costs are saved and it is ensured to obtain the dynamic information in real time.
US09396264B2 Methods and systems for information matching
A method and system for information matching in an instant messaging user interface are disclosed. The method includes monitoring, in real time, chat records in an instant messaging interface to identify a keyword and starting a search application interface if the keyword is identified. The method further includes obtaining key information associated with keyword through the search application interface, and presenting the key information in the instant messaging interface. The method and system consistent with the present disclosure may enrich the user experience in instant messaging applications.
US09396262B2 System and method for enhancing search relevancy using semantic keys
A method, computer-usable medium, and a computer system for searching for webpages are disclosed. Embodiments of the present invention provide a convenient and efficient mechanism for filtering results from a keyword search using semantic keys and semantic sub-keys, thereby enabling an increased number of irrelevant results to be filtered from a keyword search. The search query may be parsed to determine the focus of the query, where the focus may be used determine at least one semantic key for the search query. Each semantic key may be associated with at least one semantic sub-key, where the semantic keys and/or the semantic sub-keys may be used to filter the results of the keyword search. As such, broader keyword searches may be performed to include a larger number of relevant results, where the filtering mechanisms of the present invention may then filter an increased number of irrelevant results.
US09396260B2 Managing multiple virtual world accounts from a single virtual lobby interface
A virtual lobby client automatically interfaces with multiple virtual world instances, each provided by a separate virtual world provider from among multiple virtual world providers, each interfaced with to access a separate virtual world account, to retrieve a separate selection of inventory items from each virtual world account. The virtual lobby client renders an inventory directory index of each separate selection of inventory items within a single lobby interface with at least one selectable option for managing each of the items in the inventory directory from the single lobby interface. The virtual lobby client renders, within the single lobby interface, a separate graphical portal for each virtual account, wherein entry of each of the separate graphical portals triggers the virtual lobby client to automatically open a virtual world specific interface window into a particular virtual world instance provided under the particular virtual world account associated with the entered graphical portal.
US09396259B1 Capture of web application state
Disclosed are various embodiments of a system for rendering, in a first browser of a computer, a network page of an electronic commerce system. The system stores, in a first data store, a first capture of a rendering of the network page. The system transmits data associated with the first capture to another computer, where a second browser renders the network page based at least upon the data associated with the first capture. The system stores, in a second data store, a second capture of the network page.
US09396255B2 Methods and systems for facilitating evaluation of documents
Methods and systems for facilitating evaluation of one or more electronic documents. One or more templates are extracted from the one or more electronic documents. At least one area in the one or more templates is identified. The at least one area includes a response provided by a user associated with the electronic document. One or more groups are generated based on similarity between the responses in the at least one area in the one or more templates. The one or more groups are distributed to one or more remote workers or a crowdsourcing platform for the evaluation.
US09396249B1 Methods and systems for encoding parent-child map tile relationships
Methods and systems of encoding parent-child map tile relationships in a quad tree data structure are provided. A first bit string is generated, wherein the level and position of a node in the tree is transformed into a string containing values of the nodes in a parent-child relationship, in descending order of level, and a second bit string is generated that identifies and disambiguates the specific level in the quad tree of a reference node.
US09396246B2 Reporting and summarizing metrics in sparse relationships on an OLTP database
Storing and/or accessing data in a transactional database, with use of the following technique: (i) selecting a set of base tables in a transactional database; and (ii) creating a factless materialized query table, having maximum sparsity, for the set of base tables. The set of base tables includes at least two base tables. The set of base tables includes a set of keys including at least two distinct primary keys. The factless materialized query table includes one record associated with each record in the set of base tables. Each record in the materialized query table includes a value for every primary key in the set of base tables.
US09396244B2 Systems and methods for managing replicated database data
Systems and methods for replicating database data and generating read-only copies of the replicated data in a clean shutdown state. For example, systems can include a tracking module (e.g., a filter driver) that monitors transactions from a database application to a source storage device to generate log entries having at least one marker indicating a known good state of the application. The systems further include a computer coupled to a target storage device comprising a database and log files. The computer processes the transactions, based on the log entries, to replicate data to the target storage device; performs a first snapshot on data stored in the database and log files; replays into the database data stored in the log files; performs another snapshot on the database; and reverts the database back to a state in which the database existed at the time of the first snapshot.
US09396243B1 Hash-based replication using short hash handle and identity bit
In one aspect, a method includes sending a first short hash handle and a first identity bit associated with the first short hash handle to a replication site, determining if a second hash handle is identical to the first short hash handle, determining if a second identity bit associated with the second short hash handle at the replication is set if the second short hash handle is identical to the first short hash handle and using the second hash handle to identify the data if the second identity bit being is set. The first short hash handle is an identifier of data stored on a disk.
US09396241B2 User interface controls for specifying data hierarchies
User interface controls that facilitate the specification/modification of data hierarchies. In one set of embodiments, a first UI control component can be provided that comprises an ordered group of drop-down menus. Each drop-down menu in the ordered group can be populated with a selectable list of attributes from a data set and can be associated with a level in a data hierarchy. By selecting values using the various drop-down menus, a user can interactively specify a data hierarchy for the data set. The data set can then be visualized according to the specified hierarchy. In further embodiments, a second UI control component can be provided in addition to the first UI control component. The second UI control component can allow a user to interactively enable or disable certain drop-down menus in the ordered group, thereby acting as a “depth filter” for controlling the depth of the data hierarchy.
US09396238B2 Systems and methods for determining user preferences
A method and system is provided for measuring a user preference by obtaining information representing a length of time that a user hovers a user-controlled pointer over a display region corresponding to a first search result without selecting the first search result. A second search result is provided in accordance with the user preference. In some instances additional information is provided concerning the first search result over which the user-controlled pointer is hovering. In some embodiments the first search result comprises a portion that is a snippet and the obtaining information representing the length of time that a user hovers a user-controlled pointer over a display region comprises determining an amount of time that a user hovers a user-controlled pointer over the snippet.
US09396229B2 Mail indexing and searching using hierarchical caches
Electronic mail message processing includes: obtaining a set of keywords associated with an electronic mail message; updating, based at least in part on the set of keywords, a set of inverted index records stored in a level 1 cache; determining whether size of the set of inverted index records stored in the level 1 cache exceeds a first preset threshold value; in the event that the first preset threshold value is exceeded, transferring the set of inverted index records in the level 1 cache to a level 2 cache; determining whether size of a level 2 cache file exceeds a second preset threshold value; in the event that the second preset threshold value is exceeded, transferring, according to a path file, inverted index records in the level 2 cache file to a level 3 cache storing a set of inverted index files.
US09396226B2 Highly scalable tree-based trylock
A tree-based trylock technique for reducing contention on a root trylock includes attempting to acquire a trylock at each node of a tree-based hierarchical node structure while following a traversal path that begins at a leaf node, passes through one or more of internal nodes, and ends at a root node having the root trylock. The trylock acquisition operation succeeds if each trylock on the traversal path is acquired, and fails if any trylock on the traversal path cannot be acquired. A trylock housekeeping operation releases all non-root trylocks visited by the trylock acquisition operation, such that if the trylock acquisition operation succeeds, only the root trylock will be remain acquired at the end of the operation, and if the trylock acquisition operation fails, none of the trylocks will be remain acquired at the end of the operation.
US09396225B2 System and method for addressing a unique device from a common address book
A method and system for addressing a unique device from an address book, the method having the steps of: receiving a message having a root token and a secondary token; checking whether the root token exists within the address book, if no, creating a record in the address book with the root and secondary token; and if yes, checking whether the secondary token exists within the address book, if yes, providing a representation of the unique device; and if no, storing the secondary token against the root token in the address book.
US09396223B2 Method for performing full-text-based logic operation using hash
Provided is a method for performing a full-text-based logic operation using hash, the method including: (a) generating a hash data structure having a logic state that varies according to a type of a logic operator, so as to correspond to a first logic operator; (b) inserting hash nodes corresponding to first operand data into buckets that are sequentially allocated from the hash data structure; and (c) if a type of the current logic operator is AND, selecting buckets that coincide with hash nodes corresponding to second operand data among buckets inserted in (b) in the hash data structure or buckets selected as resultant values of the previous operation, as resultant values and if the type of the current logic operator is OR, inserting hash nodes among the hash nodes corresponding to the second operation data that are not retrieved from the hash data structure into the buckets that are sequentially allocated from the hash data structure and selecting all effective buckets within the hash data structure as resultant values.
US09396222B2 Method and system for high performance integration, processing and searching of structured and unstructured data using coprocessors
Disclosed herein is a method and system for integrating an enterprise's structured and unstructured data to provide users and enterprise applications with efficient and intelligent access to that data. In accordance with exemplary embodiments, the generation of metadata indexes about unstructured data can be hardware-accelerated by processing streaming unstructured data through a reconfigurable logic device to generate the metadata about the unstructured data for the index.
US09396221B2 Extensible data provider querying and scheduling system
Embodiments present a common access mechanism that can be used by one or more applications to access different data sources in a storage layer and have data stored in the data sources returned to the one or more applications. The common access mechanism can be presented by a data model that is implemented by a query and aggregation layer of an extensible querying/scheduling system. At least some individual data sources store data in different formats and have their own specific access mechanisms of which the one or more applications are unaware. In embodiments, the data model creates one or more data providers that are individually associated with individual data sources and knowledgeable of how to access data stored in an associated data source. At least some of the data providers receive queries for data and execute the queries using a different thread than the data model. At least some of the data providers are creatable on a thread that is a same thread as the data model.
US09396219B2 Grid based data mobility
A data migration system and method are disclosed for migrating data from a source server to a target server. The system includes an index containing a plurality of data migration operations in a normalized data model, each data migration operation being stored in association with an attribute, and a data mover communicably connected to the index. The data mover is adapted to move data from the source server to the target server in accordance with the data migration operations contained in the index. The data mover has an attribute corresponding to the associated attribute of at least one data migration operation contained in the index, the attribute indicating the type of data migration operations that can be performed by the data mover.
US09396218B2 Database insert with deferred materialization
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a system inserts data into a database object. The system associates the database object with a parameter specifying materialization of data for the database object. The system inserts data into the database object and materializes the data in accordance with the parameter to provide access to the data from the database object, wherein the parameter specifies a portion of the data to be materialized upon insertion. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and computer program product for inserting data into a database object in substantially the same manners described above.
US09396216B2 Repository redundancy implementation of a system which incrementally updates clients with events that occurred via a cloud-enabled platform
Techniques are disclosed for implementing repository redundancy in a system which incrementally updates remote clients with events that occurred in a cloud-enabled platform. In one embodiment, a method comprises comparing a local timestamp of an event with a remote timestamp of the event. The event is to be stored in a queue in a repository cluster to be read by a remote client. The method further comprises updating the local timestamp of the event if the comparing indicates that the remote timestamp is more recent than the local timestamp. Among other advantages, embodiments disclosed herein ensure that no event in an action log is missed or skipped by any of remote clients in a distributed action log framework system during a switchover from an active but failed server to a backup server, and require zero or minimal down time during the switchover, thereby providing robustness and serviceability to such system.
US09396204B2 Data deduplication in a removable storage device
An apparatus and associated methodology contemplate a data storage system having a removable storage device operably transferring user data between the data storage system and another device via execution of a plurality of input/output commands. A commonality factoring module executes computer instructions stored in memory to assign commonality information to the user data. A deduplication module executes computer instructions stored in memory to combine a plurality of files of the user data (user data files) with at least one file of corresponding commonality information (commonality information file), the combined files forming a sequential data stream.
US09396200B2 Auto-snapshot manager analysis tool
The invention pertains to a method and information handling system (IHS) for analyzing snapshot operation data of one or more snapshot operations associated with at least one storage device and at least one host computer. An embodiment of a method of the present invention begins by locating the snapshot operation data. Next, configuration information is assembled from the snapshot operation data. Further, debug data associated with the one or more snapshot operations is stored. An analysis is performed including the snapshot operation data, the configuration information, and the stored debug data. Next, the method identifies one or more issues and one or more action plans for resolution based upon the analysis. Finally, the method provides a report to one or more users including the configuration information, the one or more identified issues, and the one or more action plans.
US09396199B1 Customizable automated system for archiving and comparing the responses and attributes of model based designs
The present invention provides a method and system for providing customization in choosing what types of model responses are recorded and/or compared. An archive tool is provided so that a user can specify a rule or condition that would trigger the archive of a response. The archive tool can further provide the user with flexibility of how model attributes are stored with the archived response. The stored model attributes can be used to identify a specific archived response. The present invention further provides a browsing mechanism for browsing archives and selecting archives for comparison. Any number of archives may be selected and compared. The selected archives can have their responses plotted individually, together, or passed through analysis functions.
US09396198B2 Computer system, file management method and metadata server
A computer system, comprising: a file server; a metadata server; and a business server, the metadata server being coupled to a storage apparatus for providing a save area for storing at least one file that is removed from the file server, the metadata server storing a metadata repository for managing metadata of a file and the files stored in the save area, the metadata server being configured to: store a file as a saved file in the save area, in a case of detecting that the file stored in the file server is to be removed; and store information indicating a location of the file in the file server and information indicating the location of the saved file in the save area in association with each other in the metadata repository.
US09396197B2 Inserting media content from multiple repositories
Methods and systems for inserting media content from multiple media content repositories are disclosed herein. The method includes displaying indicia corresponding to a number of repositories within a user interface that is authorized to access all of the repositories, wherein the repositories may include a local repository and an online repository, or any combination thereof. The method also includes obtaining media content from any of the repositories via the user interface and inserting the media content into a location via the user interface.
US09396188B2 Assigning tags to digital content
Assigning tags to content on a page stored within a digital document environment is described. An activity log is received for a document including data indicating search queries resulting in the location of the document by a search engine. One or more keywords are determined from the activity log, and the document is tagged with a tag associated with the keywords.
US09396187B2 System and method for using network equipment to provide targeted advertising
A search request received from a user is converted to a search request integer value using an operational portion of a chip in network equipment. The search request integer value is compared to representative data integer values that were previously converted from a dataset of search terms using the operational portion, the representative integer values being stored on the chip. If the comparing is successful, a signal is transmitted to a second database, the signal being used to determine a message to be transmitted to the user that corresponds to the representative data integer.
US09396185B2 Method and apparatus for providing a contextual description of an object
A method for providing a contextual description of an object includes receiving a first object associated with a user. The first object has a first object type representing one of a place, an event, and a person and includes a first attribute associated with the respective place, event, or person. A second object is identified that has a second attribute related to the first attribute, and has a second object type representing one of a place, an event, and a person. According to an exemplary embodiment, a first pre-defined phrase template corresponding to the first object type is dynamically combined with a second pre-defined phrase template corresponding to the second object type to form a linguistic prompt related to the place, event, or person representing the first object. The linguistic prompt is then presented to the user to describe the place, event, or person representing the first object.
US09396177B1 Systems and methods for document tracking using elastic graph-based hierarchical analysis
Systems and methods for document tracking using elastic graph-based hierarchical analysis are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method may include at least one computer processor identifying a sector for the document; the at least one computer processor retrieving a customization library for the document based on the sector; the at least one computer processor analyzing a structure of the document using the customization library, whereby a plurality of markers in first the document are identified; and the at least one computer processor generating an elastic graph for the document based on the plurality of markers.
US09396176B2 Technique for copying and pasting information
A technique for copying information from one or more sources to one or more destinations. Each destination in the one or more destinations is associated with an identifier. Information that is to be copied from a source is identified. An identifier associated with a destination is acquired. The identified information is then copied to the destination associated with the acquired identifier.
US09396170B2 Hyperlink data presentation
A method of presenting hyperlink data. The method comprises identifying when a web browser running on a web browser client retrieves, in response to a web document data request submitted to a target server, a first web document data for displaying a first web document containing a hyperlink having a label for display and a target destination defining an address of a second web document, evaluating a risk from content of the second web document, generating by the web browser to a reference evaluation indication of the risk, and processing the web document data and the reference evaluation indication by the web browser for generating a presentation on the client terminal which combines the first web document data and the reference evaluation indication such that when the reference evaluation indication is presented when the label is presented by the web browser.
US09396168B2 System and method for using data and angles to automatically generate a narrative story
A system and method for automatically generating a narrative story receives data and information pertaining to a domain event. The received data and information and/or one or more derived features are then used to identify a plurality of angles for the narrative story. The plurality of angles is then filtered, for example through use of parameters that specify a focus for the narrative story, length of the narrative story, etc. Points associated with the filtered plurality of angles are then assembled and the narrative story is rendered using the filtered plurality of angles and the assembled points.
US09396167B2 Template-based page layout for hosted social magazines
Page layout of content items from a variety of sources is performed. A content processing system queues content items, such as user-generated blogs, tweets, social networking status updates and other postings, received from a variety of sources. Each content item comprises one or more assets from one or more asset types. The asset types include text, images, and video. A page builder retrieves items from the queue and determines the item's size constraints. A template is selected from a template database to use as a layout for the items on a page; each template has a number of slots into which content can be placed. A layout module lays out the items into the slots of the selected template based on the respective size and aspect ratio constraints of the items, in order to build a page to serve a client device.
US09396155B2 Envelope detection device and related communication device
An envelope detection device for detecting a transmission signal of a high speed serial communication includes: an operation circuit, for receiving the transmission signal and generating a set of operated outputs according to the transmission signal and at least one reference signal; a reference signal generating circuit coupled to the operation circuit, for providing the reference signal to the operation circuit, wherein the reference signal generating circuit is operable to provide the reference signal with different voltage levels; and a comparing circuit coupled to the operation circuit, for comparing the set of calculated outputs to generate a comparison result. The envelope detection device detects a transmission state and a disconnect state of the high speed serial communication according to the comparison result generated based on the reference signals at different voltage levels.
US09396154B2 Multi-core processor for managing data packets in communication network
A system for managing data packets has multiple cores, a data buffer, a hardware accelerator, and an interrupt controller. The interrupt controller transmits a first interrupt signal to a first one of the cores based on a first hardware signal received from the hardware accelerator. The first core creates a copy of buffer descriptors (BD) of a buffer descriptor ring that correspond to the data packets in the data buffer in a first virtual queue and indicates to the hardware accelerator that the data packets are processed. If there are additional data packets, the interrupt controller transmits a second interrupt signal to a second core, which performs the same steps as performed by the first core. The first and the second cores simultaneously process the data packets associated with the BDs in the first and second virtual queues, respectively.
US09396152B2 Device, system and method for communication with heterogenous physical layers
A device to process data packets for communication across PHY layers which are of different respective communication protocols. In an embodiment, the device includes a first protocol stack and a second protocol stack which are each for a PCIe™ communication protocol. The first protocol stack and a second protocol stack may interface, respectively, with a first physical (PHY) layer and a second PHY layer of the device. The first protocol stack and the second protocol stack may exchange packets to facilitate communications via both the first PHY layer and the second PHY layer. In another embodiment, the first PHY layer is for communication according to the PCIe™ communication protocol and the second PHY layer is for communication according to another, comparatively low power communication protocol.
US09396150B2 Computer system and method utilizing a PCIe switch to control transfer of packets
A system and method are disclosed to prevent a reduction in the number of I/O devices which can be connected when building a PCIe topology by connecting I/O devices to a computer via a PCIe switch. A switch with which a computer and I/O devices are connected includes: a first PCI-PCI bridge which is positioned on the computer side; a second PCI-PCI bridge which is positioned on the I/O device side; trapper units which trap packet data which is inputted into the switch; a packet routing unit which transfers packet data to the I/O devices; and a management processor which is connected to the trapper units and provides the computer a virtual PCI-PCI bridge and a virtual link by execution of a program. The trapper units adjudicate the destination of the packet data which is transferred from the computer.
US09396148B2 System method for connecting USB Type-C devices by measuring predetermined test patterns between a plurality of connected accessories
In some example embodiments, there may be provided a method, which may include sending, by a user equipment, a first predetermined test pattern to a first accessory including a first connector, when the first accessory is in a first mode of operation; determining, by the user equipment, a configuration of the first accessory in the first mode by at least measuring a first time for the first predetermined test pattern to return from the first connector and a data loop at the first accessory; sending, by the user equipment, a second predetermined test pattern via at least the first connector; and determining, by the user equipment, a presence of a data loop extension, by at least measuring a second time for the second predetermined test pattern to return from the first connector and at least one of the data loop at the first accessory or the data loop extension.
US09396147B1 Interconnection of peripheral devices on different electronic devices
A method and apparatus of performing a data transmission from an electronic device or a peripheral device of an electronic device to a peripheral device of a remote electronic device is disclosed. One example method of performing the data transmission may include transmitting data designated for the remote peripheral device to a local virtual device object. The data that is received by the local virtual device object is transmitted via at least one communication interface or peripheral device of the electronic device to at least one remote communication interface or peripheral device of the remote electronic device. The data arriving at the least one remote communication interface or peripheral device of the remote electronic device is received by a remote virtual device object and transmitted to the designated remote peripheral device.
US09396143B2 Hierarchical in-memory sort engine
A local sorting module includes a set of storage elements storing binary vectors configured in a one-dimensional (1D) or two-dimensional (2D) array structure and separated by respective comparators configured to conditionally compare and sort the binary vectors. The comparators may perform a sort using a compare-and-flip or a compare-and-swap operation. Local sorting modules may be coupled with a global sorting module for enabling a tournament sort algorithm to output values stored in storage elements one at a time until all data is outputted in a predetermined sorting order.
US09396142B2 Virtualizing input/output interrupts
An input/output hub may include an interface unit and one or more communication units. Each communication unit may be configured to receive interrupts or messages from a corresponding endpoint device. A given communication unit may be further configured to synthesize a virtual address from the received message, translate the synthesized virtual address to a real address, and then translate the real address to a physical address. The interface unit may be configured to send an interrupt dependent upon the physical address.
US09396141B2 Memory system and information processing device by which data is written and read in response to commands from a host
According to embodiments a memory system is connectable to a host which includes a host controller and a host memory including a first memory area and a second memory area. The memory system includes an interface unit, a non-volatile memory, and a controller unit. The interface unit receives a read command and a write command. The controller unit writes write-data to the non-volatile memory according to the write command. The controller unit determines whether read-data requested by the read command is in the first memory area. If the read-data is in the first memory area, the controller unit causes the host controller to copy the read-data from the first memory area to the second memory area. If the read-data is not in the first memory area, the controller unit reads the read-data from the non-volatile memory and causes the host controller to store the read-data in the second memory area.
US09396140B1 Method and apparatus for transferring frames with different world wide name addresses and connection rates between initiators of a host device and a port
A system including a memory with arrays, a register, and a port. The memory stores an interrupt service routine (ISR). The arrays store respective fields. The port is connected to initiators of a host device and includes a physical layer (PHY) device and a control module. The PHY device: transfers a first frame between the port and a first initiator; and transfers a second frame between the port and the first or a second initiator. The frames include first and second information including respective world wide name addresses and connection rates. The PHY device: compares the first and second information; if there is not a match, interrupts servicing the first frame; and stores an index value for one of the arrays in the register. The control module, based on the index value, executes the ISR to service the second frame based on the fields in the one of the arrays.
US09396132B2 Storage control device and system to improve data retention in variable resistance memory cells
Provided is a storage control device including a first read processing unit configured to read data having any one value of a first value or a second value based on a first threshold value in a memory cell, the data being read as first read data, a first write processing unit configured to rewrite the memory cell to the first value when write data is the first value and the first read data is the second value, a second read processing unit configured to read second read data based on a second threshold value different from the first threshold value in the memory cell, and a second write processing unit configured to rewrite the memory cell to the second value when the write data is the second value and the second read data is the first value.
US09396131B1 Dynamic three-tier data storage utilization
A system for dynamically utilizing data storage comprises a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to determine whether a data storage criterion is satisfied; and, in the event that the data storage criterion is satisfied: determine a new archiving threshold based on a target data storage usage level; and set the archiving threshold. The memory is coupled to the processor and is configured to provide the processor with instructions.
US09396129B2 Synchronous and asynchronous discard scans based on the type of cache memory
A computational device maintains a first type of cache and a second type of cache. The computational device receives a command from the host to release space. The computational device synchronously discards tracks from the first type of cache, and asynchronously discards tracks from the second type of cache.
US09396128B2 System and method for dynamic allocation of unified cache to one or more logical units
A system and method provide a unified cache in a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) device which can be dynamically allocated to one or more Logical Units (LUs). A cache balancer module of the SCSI device can allocate the entire unified cache to a single LU, or divide the unified cache among multiple LUs. The cache entries for each LU can be further classified based on Quality of Service (QoS) traffic classes within each LU thereby improving the QoS performance. The system provides a cache allocation table that maintains a unified cache allocation status for each LU.
US09396127B2 Synchronizing access to data in shared memory
In some embodiments, in response to execution of a load-reserve instruction that binds to a load target address held in a store-through upper level cache, a processor core sets a core reservation flag, transmits a load-reserve operation to a store-in lower level cache, and tracks, during a core reservation tracking interval, the reservation requested by the load-reserve operation until the store-in lower level cache signals that the store-in lower level cache has assumed responsibility for tracking the reservation. In response to receipt during the core reservation tracking interval of an invalidation signal indicating presence of a conflicting snooped operation, the processor core cancels the reservation by resetting the core reservation flag and fails a subsequent store-conditional operation. Responsive to not canceling the reservation during the core reservation tracking interval, the processor core determines whether a store-conditional operation succeeds by reference to a pass/fail indication provided by the store-in lower level cache.
US09396126B2 Clearing an application cache
A system and machine-implemented method for clearing an application cache. A request for a manifest file is received from an electronic device, the manifest file indicating a current version of application resources for loading web content offline. A determination is made if the request includes a first instruction for clearing an application cache on the electronic device, the application cache comprising a stored version of application resources for loading web content offline. In a case where the request includes the first instruction, a second instruction is transmitted to the electronic device, the second instruction for instructing the electronic device to clear the application cache.
US09396124B2 Apparatus and method for configurable redundant fuse banks
An apparatus is contemplated for storing and providing configuration data to an integrated circuit device, the apparatus has a fuse array and a plurality of cores. The fuse array is disposed on a die. The fuse array has a first plurality of semiconductor fuses and a second plurality of semiconductor fuses. The plurality of cores is disposed on the die, where each of the plurality of cores is coupled to the fuse array. The each of the plurality of cores includes array control, configured to access the first and second pluralities of fuses, and configured to process first states of the first plurality of semiconductor fuses and second states of the second plurality of semiconductor fuses according to contents of a configuration data register.
US09396123B2 Core-specific fuse mechanism for a multi-core die
An apparatus including a plurality of cores and a fuse array. The plurality of cores is disposed on a die. The fuse array is disposed on the die and is coupled to each of the plurality of cores, where the fuse array includes a first plurality of semiconductor fuses and a second plurality of semiconductor fuses. The first plurality of semiconductor fuses is programmed with compressed configuration data for the each of the plurality of cores. The second plurality of semiconductor fuses is programmed with core designation data that associates some of the compressed configuration data with one of the plurality of cores, where the one of the plurality of cores accesses and decompresses the some of the compressed configuration data upon power-up/reset, for initialization of elements within the one of the plurality of cores.
US09396120B2 Adjustable over-restrictive cache locking limit for improved overall performance
Disclosed is a cache locking system that includes a cache controller that is operable to receive a first request from a device to lock a first way in the cache. The cache controller is operable to determine that the first way in the cache is not lockable by the device. The cache controller is also operable to send, to the device, a rejection of the first request. The cache controller is further operable to receive a second request from the device to lock a second way in the cache. The cache controller is operable to lock the second way in the cache in response to the second request.
US09396118B2 Efficient dynamic randomizing address remapping for PCM caching to improve endurance and anti-attack
A method, including monitoring, by a remapping manager, a system state of a computing device for the occurrence of a predefined event, detecting, by the remapping manager, the occurrence of the predefined event, and initiating, by the remapping manager upon the detection of the predefined event, a remapping of first encoded addresses stored in tags, the first encoded addresses are associated with locations in main memory that are cached in a memory cache.
US09396117B2 Instruction cache power reduction
In one embodiment, a method for controlling an instruction cache including a least-recently-used bits array, a tag array, and a data array, includes looking up, in the least-recently-used bits array, least-recently-used bits for each of a plurality of cacheline sets in the instruction cache, determining a most-recently-used way in a designated cacheline set of the plurality of cacheline sets based on the least-recently-used bits for the designated cacheline, looking up, in the tag array, tags for one or more ways in the designated cacheline set, looking up, in the data array, data stored in the most-recently-used way in the designated cacheline set, and if there is a cache hit in the most-recently-used way, retrieving the data stored in the most-recently-used way from the data array.
US09396114B2 Performing staging or destaging based on the number of waiting discard scans
A controller receives a request to perform staging or destaging operations with respect to an area of a cache. A determination is made as to whether more than a threshold number of discard scans are waiting to be performed. The controller avoids satisfying the request to perform the staging or the destaging operations or a read hit with respect to the area of the cache, in response to determining that more than the threshold number of discard scans are waiting to be performed.
US09396113B2 Flexible configuration hardware streaming unit
A processor having a streaming unit is disclosed. In one embodiment, a processor includes a streaming unit configured to load one or more input data streams from a memory coupled to the processor. The streaming unit includes an internal network having a plurality of queues configured to store streams of data. The streaming unit further includes a plurality of operations circuits configured to perform operations on the streams of data. The streaming unit is software programmable to operatively couple two or more of the plurality of operations circuits together via one or more of the plurality of queues. The operations circuits may perform operations on multiple streams of data, resulting in corresponding output streams of data.
US09396111B2 Caching using base setup version
A consuming subsystem calculates information based on setup information from one or more other subsystems. Each of the one or more other subsystems generates a base version value that changes every time any of the setup information changes. The consuming subsystem caches information, including the base version values at the time the information was calculated by the consuming subsystem.
US09396106B2 Advanced management of a non-volatile memory
A method of managing a non-volatile memory device, the method comprising: receiving data sectors; writing each data sector into a data block that is allocated to a memory space subset that is associated with the data sector; wherein the data block belongs to a buffer of the non-volatile memory device; maintaining a management data structure that comprises location metadata about a location of each data sector in the buffer; and merging, if a criterion is fulfilled and before the buffer becomes full, data sectors stored at different data blocks and belong to a same set of logical memory blocks into a sequential portion of the non-volatile memory device, wherein the sequential portion differs from the buffer.
US09396100B2 Software testing optimizer
In an approach for testing software, a computer receives a series of two or more revisions to a set of software code. The computer identifies modifications between the series of two or more revisions. The computer categorizes the series of two or more revisions into one or more categories of revisions based on the identified modifications. The computer tests at least one of the series of two or more revisions from at least one of the one or more categories of revisions.
US09396099B2 Application state detector and inducer
A method for controlling a computer-implemented application, the method including determining a current state of a computer-implemented application, inducing the application into a predefined state associated with a target action of the application if the current state does not match the predefined state in accordance with predefined match criteria, and causing the target action to be performed.
US09396095B2 Software verification
A method of verifying software may include receiving a portion of a software program that includes multiple functions. The method may also include clustering the functions into two or more clusters of functions and generating a symbolic driver for each of the clusters of functions such that multiple symbolic drivers are generated. The clusters of functions may be symbolically executed using the symbolic drivers to generate concrete test cases for the functions in the clusters. In response to the coverage of the symbolic execution of the clusters of functions being less than a particular coverage or a number of the concrete test cases being more than a particular number of concrete test cases, the method may include re-clustering the functions.
US09396093B1 Virtual execution environment for software delivery and feedback
A method and system for testing and logging execution events of software delivered to a user. The user can launch and run the software product while having the support and a necessary input from the product developer. A software product is provided from a first remote server and executed on a user computer, while execution statistics are collected and analyzed by a second remote server. The software product is used in a virtual execution environment. The software product is executed on a Guest Operating System (GOS) also installed on the user computer. A hypervisor-level monitoring of tested software products and GOSs is implemented.
US09396089B2 Activity tracing diagnostic systems and methods
Systems and methods are disclosed for logging encoded diagnostic information from a sequence of processing operations, the processing operations generated by an activity in a computing environment. Diagnostic information is tracked by activity, across process boundaries where the processes can be in computationally isolated, or “sandboxed”. Within each process, diagnostic information for an activity is stored in an activity-specific buffer registered with a kernel in the computing environment. For each activity in the computing system, the kernel keeps a list of all processes that have performed, or are performing, a processing task of the activity. The kernel also keeps a reference to the activity-specific log buffers for the activity for each process associated with the activity. If a processing operation for an activity fails, all activity-specific logs from all processes that are associated with the activity can be collected. A report can be generated from the collected logs for the activity.
US09396088B2 Computer execution progress indicator
Example systems and methods of providing an indicator of execution progress of a computer task are presented. In one example, a command to perform a computer task is received. The command is compared to a log of commands for computer tasks previously performed on the computer system and their associated execution times. At least one execution time is retrieved from the log based on the comparison. An indicator indicating an estimated execution time for the computer task is provided for presentation to a user of the computer system based on the at least one retrieved execution time.
US09396086B2 Method for client workload characterization in a zSeries benchmark center environment
A method for client workload characterization in a zSeries benchmark center environment. The method includes collecting client characterization data (CCCD). The method concludes with calibrating a large system performance reference (LSPR) relative to the client characterization data.
US09396083B2 Computer system processes
A mechanism is provided for identifying an inter-relationship between a first process and the second process of a computer system. A correlation is detected between the first process and the second process based on a timing of the first process and the second process accessing a system resource of the computer system. An inter-relationship is then identified between the first process and the second process based on the detected correlation between the first process and the second process.
US09396082B2 Systems and methods of analyzing a software component
A particular method includes initiating, at an analyzer, execution of a software component at a first computing device. The first computing device includes hardware components and sensors. The sensors are external to the hardware components. A first hardware component of the hardware components is coupled to a second hardware component of the hardware components. A first sensor of the sensors is configured to monitor communications between the first hardware component and the second hardware component. The method also includes receiving monitoring data, from the first sensor, regarding a communication between the first hardware component and the second hardware component. The method further includes analyzing first effects of executing the software component on the first computing device based at least partially on the monitoring data.
US09396081B1 Method, apparatus and system for managing queue operations of a test bench environment
Techniques and mechanisms for performing dequeue operations for agents of a test bench environment. In an embodiment, a first group of agents are each allocated a respective ripe reservation and a second set of agents are each allocated a respective unripe reservation. Over time, queue management logic allocates respective reservations to agents and variously changes one or more such reservations from unripe to ripe. In another embodiment, an order of servicing agents allocated unripe reservations is based on relative priorities of the unripe reservations with respect to one another. An order of servicing agents allocated ripe reservations is on a first come, first served basis.
US09396080B2 Storage module and method for analysis and disposition of dynamically tracked read error events
A method for analyzing a read error event is provided comprising reading a page of data stored in memory, determining a read error event for the page of data, and identifying a scope of the read error event in the memory. In another embodiment, a method for performing a preliminary read error recovery is provided comprising reading a first data unit from memory and identifying a bit error rate for a first data unit with a correction engine, determining that the bit error rate is above a threshold, accessing a data structure including entries identifying data units and read error event information associated with the data units, identifying a second data unit in an entry that matches the first data unit, and performing a preliminary read error recovery process on the first data unit using the information in the entry to reduce the bit error rate below the threshold.
US09396070B2 System and method for system-on-a-chip subsystem external access detection and recovery
Systems and methods for external access detection and recovery in a subsystem of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) in a portable computing device (PCD) are presented. In operation, a subsystem of the SoC is operated in an internal mode independently of the SoC while the SoC is in a low power state, such as a non-functional or zero power state or mode. The subsystem comprises a processor in communication with a memory, a sensor, and a monitor module. The monitor module detects when the processor of the subsystem requests access to a component external to the subsystem. In response to this detected request, the SoC is caused to enter into a full power state or mode, and the subsystem is caused to exit the internal mode of operation.
US09396065B2 Extensible memory hub
The present disclosure relates to an extensible memory hub. An apparatus may include a first extensible non-volatile memory (NVM) hub (EN hub). The first EN hub includes an upstream interface port configured to couple the first EN hub to an NVM controller or to a second EN hub; a downstream interface port configured to couple the first EN hub to a third EN hub or to a NVM device; at least one NVM device port, each NVM device port configured to couple the first EN hub to a respective NVM device via a NVM channel; and an EN hub controller. The EN hub controller includes command logic configured to initialize the first EN hub in response to an initialize chain command from the NVM controller, the initializing including enumerating each NVM device coupled to the first EN hub and each of one or more associated NVM dies.
US09396063B2 Storage device and operating method thereof
An operating method of a storage device is provided. The operating method comprises the following steps. First, a first data is read from a target address of a first storage unit. Then, an assisting unit checks whether the target address is corresponding to a second data stored in a second storage unit. If the target address is corresponding to the second data, the assisting unit updates the first data according to the second data to generate an updated data. Next, an Error Correction Code (ECC) performs a decoding process on the updated data to generate a decoded data.
US09396062B1 Group based codes for multi-dimensional recording (MDR)
A multi-dimensional recording (MDR) system may include a group based coding circuit (GBCC) which can implement error correcting codes via outer codes. The GBCC can implement outer codes, including interleaving outer codes, in MDR systems where inner codewords include multiple memory groupings. The multiple memory groupings may be across different structural divisions within a data storage medium; or could be across multiple different data storage mediums.
US09396058B2 Enhanced error detection with behavior profiles
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for detecting errors within a system by using behavior profiles are presented. At a first time, user requests may be received and serviced. The serviced user requests may be logged. Based on the logged user requests, profiles may be determined. At a second time, user requests may be received and serviced. The serviced user requests may be logged. The logged serviced user requests may be compared to the profiles determined at a first time. For example, the determined profiles may include an error rate for serviced user requests. At the second time, an error rate for the logged serviced user requests may be compared to an error rate included the determined profiles. Serviced users requests may be flagged based on the comparison.
US09396052B2 Periodic validation and health reports of disaster recovery plan
Techniques are described for validating a disaster recovery plan. In an embodiment, a request is received to perform a validation of a disaster recovery operation plan that includes a set of instructions for performing a disaster recovery operation with respect to a first site and a second site. In response to receiving the request to perform the validation of the disaster recovery operation plan, a set of one or more validation operations is performed with respect to the disaster recovery operation plan. Based on the set of one or more validation operations, a report is generated that identifies one or more issues that may prevent the disaster recovery operation plan from executing properly.
US09396051B2 Integration application building tool
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with an integration application building tool are described. In one embodiment, a method includes providing data files including an adapter data file, a flow data file, and an environment data file. The adapter data file stores adapter data corresponding to a plurality of adapters for respective enterprise applications. An adapter for a given enterprise application enables the given enterprise application to exchange messages with a messaging system. The flow data file describes to a plurality of flows of messages, through the messaging system, between enterprise applications. The environment data file is configured to be populated with location data. The method includes, receiving an instance of location data and populating the environment data file. An adapter application comprising computer code is generated that, when executed, allows the enterprise application to exchange messages with the messaging system. The adapter application is deployed on integration bus hardware.
US09396045B2 Information processing apparatus, method, and program
An information processing apparatus is provided including a first operating system incapable of adding or deleting an application and a second operating system capable of adding and deleting an application; and determines whether a received command is a command directed to the first operating system or a command directed to the second operating system by referencing a table in which the command and an operating system for processing the command are associated with each other; retains the table; controls a memory so that the first operating system or the second operating system can start processing based on a result of the determining by the means for determining; and transfers the received command to the first operating system or the second operating system based on the result of the determining.
US09396044B2 Memory efficient thread-level speculation
A processor device executes program code in one or more threads. The processor device detects a call of a function in one of the threads and executes the function in a further thread. Further, the processor device performs a selection between saving a state of the processor device when starting execution of the function in the further thread and not saving the state of the processor device when starting execution of the function in the further thread. In response to a conflict related to the execution of the function in the further thread, the processor device may perform a rollback to a last saved state of the processor device and execute the function in the thread in which it was called.
US09396043B2 Synchronization across applications
Mechanisms of synchronization between different types of application, using communication between client and server devices, are described. As an example, synchronization between a script running in a browser and a native application may be implemented using a lock service on a server. Mechanisms for synchronization also allow for applications on different client devices to be automatically synchronized. Identifiers may be automatically used by a synchronization mechanism implemented by a service. Identifiers may include user, machine, application or other identifiers. Messages and protocols between the client devices and server services to create, use, and destroy a lock are described.
US09396041B2 Optimization of resource usage in a multi-environment computing system
A method and apparatus for modifying resource usage by a computing system including a first environment and a second environment is disclosed. A status signal is received and applications executed by the first environment and by the second environment are monitored. The status signal may indicate whether the computing system is coupled to an external device. It is determined whether a first application is executed by the first environment and by the second environment. Responsive to determining the first application is executed by the first environment and by the second environment, an amount of resources allocated to the first application by each of the environments is calculated. Based on the first amount of resources allocated by the different environments, execution of the first application by the first environment or by the second environment is halted.
US09396039B1 Scalable load testing using a queue
Methods and systems for load generation for scalable load testing are disclosed. A plurality of job descriptions are generated based on a load step description. The load step description specifies a total transaction frequency or a total number of concurrent connections for a load test of a service over a period of time. The job descriptions specify subdivisions of the total transaction frequency or the total number of concurrent connections and subdivisions of the period of time. The job descriptions are placed in a job queue. A plurality of worker hosts remove the job descriptions from the job queue and concurrently execute local jobs based on the job descriptions.
US09396032B2 Priority based context preemption
Methods and apparatuses may prioritize the processing of high priority and low priority contexts submitted to a processing unit through separate high priority and low priority context submission ports. According to one embodiment, submission of a context to the low priority port causes contexts in progress to be preempted, whereas submission of a context to the high priority port causes contexts in progress to be paused.
US09396031B2 Distributed UIMA cluster computing (DUCC) facility
A system for processing analytics on a cluster of computing resources may receive a user request to process a Job, Service or Reservation, and may include an Orchestrator, Resource Manager, Process Manager, and one or more Agents and Job Drivers, which together deploy the Job onto one or more nodes in the cluster for parallelized processing of Jobs and their associated work items.
US09396025B2 Time-variant use models in constraint-based IT resource consolidation
A method, system, and computer program product for automated data center platform consolidation. The method commences defining a set of source platforms (e.g., servers, database machines, network infrastructure components, etc.) where the source platforms are associated with time-variant demand models (e.g., computing demand during the working/daytime periods, demand at night, etc.). The demand models can be measured or estimated, and can be in any units of time (e.g., days, hours, etc.). Then a set of target platforms is defined where a member of the set of target platforms has a respective target platform profile comprising an initial time-variant availability model to compare with the time-variant demand models of the source platforms. Time-variant constraints (e.g., not more than 80% utilization during working/daytime periods, etc.) are observed while mapping members of the set of source platforms to the members of the set of target platforms until a consolidation stopping condition is reached.
US09396023B1 Methods and systems for parallel distributed computation
Methods and systems for performing a shared computing task are provided. The method includes configuring a shared computing task among a plurality of computing nodes each executing an application for performing the shared computing task; generating intermediate data by each of the plurality of computing nodes during a mapping process for performing the shared computing task; capturing the intermediate data for each of the plurality of computing nodes; storing the intermediate data for each of the plurality of computing nodes at a key-value data store at a shared storage device that enables searching for the intermediate data using a key-value pair; and using the key-value pair to obtain the intermediate data when needed for a reduce process of the shared computing task.
US09396020B2 Context switching mechanism for a processing core having a general purpose CPU core and a tightly coupled accelerator
An apparatus is described having multiple cores, each core having: a) an accelerator; and, b) a general purpose CPU coupled to the accelerator. The general purpose CPU has functional unit logic circuitry to execute an instruction that returns an amount of storage space to store context information of the accelerator.
US09396018B2 Low latency architecture with directory service for integration of transactional data system with analytical data structures
Low latency communication between a transactional system and analytic data store resources can be accomplished through a low latency key-value store with purpose-designed queues and status reporting channels. Posting by the transactional system to input queues and complementary posting by analytic system workers to output queues is described. On-demand production and splitting of analytic data stores requires significant elapsed processing time, so a separate process status reporting channel is described to which workers can periodically post their progress, thereby avoiding progress inquiries and interruptions of processing to generate report status. This arrangement produces low latency and reduced overhead for interactions between the transactional system and the analytic data store system.
US09396016B1 Handoff of virtual machines based on security requirements
Examples disclosed herein provide systems, methods, and software to handoff virtual machines between hypervisors. In one implementation, a method of transitioning a virtual machine from a first hypervisor to a second hypervisor includes identifying a request to transition the virtual machine from the first hypervisor to the second hypervisor. The method further provides determining security trust requirements for the virtual machine, and exchanging trust information between the first hypervisor and the second hypervisor. The method further provides determining if the second hypervisor can support the virtual machine based on the security trust requirements and the trust information, and transitioning the device to the second hypervisor if the second hypervisor can support the virtual machine.
US09396012B2 Systems and methods of using a hypervisor with guest operating systems and virtual processors
An apparatus includes a processor and a guest operating system. In response to receiving a request to create a task, the guest operating system requests a hypervisor to create a virtual processor to execute the requested task. The virtual processor is schedulable on the processor.
US09396010B2 Optimization of packet processing by delaying a processor from entering an idle state
Some embodiments facilitate high performance packet-processing by enabling one or more processors that perform packet-processing to determine whether to enter an idle state or similar state. As network packets usually arrive or are transmitted in batches, the processors of some embodiments determine that more packets may be coming down a multi-stage pipeline upon receiving a first packet for processing. As a result, the processors may stay awake for a duration of time in anticipation of an incoming packet. Some embodiments keep track of the last packet that entered the first stage of the pipeline and compare that with a packet that the processor just processed in a pipeline stage to determine whether there may be more packets coming that need processing. In some embodiments, a processor may also look at a queue length of a queue associated with an upstream stage to determine whether more packets may be coming.
US09396009B2 Optimized global capacity management in a virtualized computing environment
Machines, systems and methods for managing resources allocated in a virtualized computing network are provided. The method comprises monitoring resource usage by a first host, wherein the first host, in addition to the first host's dedicated resources, has access to a first set of sharable resources, and wherein the second host, in addition to the second host's dedicated resources, has access to a second set of sharable resources; determining whether the second host has excess resource capacity in the second host's dedicated and sharable resources, in response to determining that resource usage of the first host in the first host's dedicated and sharable resources has exceeded a resource usage threshold; and reallocating one or more resources in the second set of sharable resources from the second host to the first host, in response to determining that the second host has excess resource capacity.
US09396008B2 System and method for continuous optimization of computing systems with automated assignment of virtual machines and physical machines to hosts
A system and method for automatically reconfiguring a computing environment comprises a consumption analysis server, a placement server, a deployment server in communication with a set of virtual machine monitors and a data warehouse in communication with a set of data collection agents, and a database. The consumption analysis server operates on measured resource utilization data in the data warehouse to yield a set of resource consumptions, available capacities and host and virtual machine configurations from the computing environment. The deployment server continuously monitors an event triggering condition and when the triggering condition is met, the placement server assigns a set of target virtual machines to a target set of hosts in a new placement and the deployment server implements the new placement through communication with the set of virtual machine monitors. The placement server right-sizes the virtual machines and the target set of hosts.
US09396003B2 Information provision system, information provision method, and information provision program
An information providing system according to an embodiment includes an acquisition unit and a display control unit. The acquisition unit acquires a plurality of help topics corresponding to a plurality of entry fields to be displayed on a screen from a field/topic storage unit that stores help topics corresponding to entry fields. The display control unit displays the plurality of entry fields in an entry area in the screen displayed on a user terminal and displays the plurality of help topics acquired by the acquisition unit in a help area in the screen. When a field/topic displayed in one of the entry area and the help area is specified, the display control unit makes a display mode of a field/topic in the other area corresponding to the specified field/topic different from a display mode of the other fields/topics in the other area.
US09396002B2 Synchronizing a cursor from a managed system with a cursor from a remote system
A method includes receiving reports of the pointing device events occurring on a remote computer at a host computer and performing computations in the host computer based upon the mouse reports. The method includes generating screen images in the host computer based upon the computations, the screen images not containing images of a cursor representing locations pointed to by a pointing device of the host computer. The generated screen images are transmitted to the remote computer. In some embodiments, the reports may be received by a remote console controller. An information handling system includes boot firmware to set a mouse to operate in absolute mode under control of the boot firmware. An information handling system separately transmits to a remote console controller of the information handling system screen images without a cursor and cursor images.
US09395998B2 Selectively controlling instruction execution in transactional processing
Execution of instructions in a transactional environment is selectively controlled. A TRANSACTION BEGIN instruction initiates a transaction and includes controls that selectively indicate whether certain types of instructions are permitted to execute within the transaction. The controls include one or more of an allow access register modification control and an allow floating point operation control.
US09395997B2 Request coalescing for instruction streams
Sequential fetch requests from a set of fetch requests are combined into longer coalesced requests that match the width of a system memory interface in order to improve memory access efficiency for reading the data specified by the fetch requests. The fetch requests may be of different classes and each data class is coalesced separately, even when intervening fetch requests are of a different class. Data read from memory is ordered according to the order of the set of fetch requests to produce an instruction stream that includes the fetch requests for the different classes.
US09395996B2 Pipelining out-of-order instructions
Systems, methods and computer program product provide for pipelining out-of-order instructions. Embodiments comprise an instruction reservation station for short instructions of a short latency type and long instructions of a long latency type, an issue queue containing at least two short instructions of a short latency type, which are to be chained to match a latency of a long instruction of a long latency type, a register file, at least one execution pipeline for instructions of a short latency type and at least one execution pipeline for instructions of a long latency type; wherein results of the at least one execution pipeline for instructions of the short latency type are written to the register file, preserved in an auxiliary buffer, or forwarded to inputs of said execution pipelines. Data of the auxiliary buffer are written to the register file.
US09395986B2 Compiling method and compiling apparatus
A compiling apparatus detects a plurality of branch instructions, each of which specifies execution of branch processing on the basis of a result of a comparison operation between integers and indicates the same jump destination, in a first code. The compiling apparatus converts the plurality of branch instructions into an instruction group having fewer branch instructions than the plurality of branch instructions by using logical and arithmetic instructions. The compiling apparatus generates a second code using the converted instruction group when the number of cycles of processing based on the converted instruction group is smaller than that based on the plurality of branch instructions.
US09395980B2 Residual addition for video software techniques
According to some embodiments, a technique provides for the execution of an instruction that includes receiving residual data of a first image and decoded pixels of a second image, zero-extending a plurality of unsigned data operands of the decoded pixels producing a plurality of unpacked data operands, adding a plurality of signed data operands of the residual data to the plurality of unpacked data operands producing a plurality of signed results; and saturating the plurality of signed results producing a plurality of unsigned results.
US09395978B2 Mobile phone based software processing method and mobile phone
A mobile phone based software processing method recording time information of installation of each software program in a mobile phone; updating the latest time information of the software; and when it is detected that the time information of certain software is idle for more than a preset time interval, determining that the software is long-term idle, arranging and displaying a list of long-term idle software being idle for more than a preset time interval, and updating or unloading the long-time idle software automatically according to requirements.
US09395972B2 Customizing an operating system installer via a web-based interface
A mechanism for customizing an operating system installer via a web-based interface is disclosed. A method of the invention includes providing a web-based interface that enables an end user to customize a kickstart file to install an operating system (OS) on a computing machine of the end user, identifying a base kickstart file template selected by the end user via the web-based interface, identifying one or more customizations to the base kickstart file template that are selected by the end user via the web-based interface, modifying the base kickstart file template with the one or more customizations selected by the end user to create a modified kickstart file, and providing the modified kickstart file to the end user for use by an OS installer of the computing machine in installing an OS that includes the one or more customizations selected by the end user.
US09395971B2 Complex computer environment installation
An install request including a hierarchy of a complex computer environment is received, wherein the hierarchy comprises a first component needed on the first computer and one or more other components needed in the complex computer environment. One or more other computers on which to install the one or mother components is determined. Responsive to determining the one or more other computer on which to install the one or more other components, installation of the one or more other components on the one or mother other computers is initiated.
US09395963B1 System and method for accessing meta-data in a dynamically typed array-based language
A class definition syntax that leverages the array and math-oriented nature of a dynamically typed array-based programming language is discussed. Some embodiments of the present invention provides a mechanism for using meta-data to define a class implemented in the dynamically typed array-based programming language. The meta-data provide an easy way to provide class definitions and allow a user to access the class definitions from objects. The meta-data also support extension of class definitions without introducing backward incompatibility.
US09395962B2 Apparatus and method for executing external operations in prologue or epilogue of a software-pipelined loop
A technology for executing an external operation from a software-pipelined loop is provided. Code performance efficiency can be improved by overlapping the execution of the external operations of the loop and the iterations of the loop.
US09395955B2 Programming system and method
A programming system and method configured to facilitate the programming of computer programs and interfacing therewith including a computing system. The computing system includes a processing module having a processor. The computing system includes a memory storage module having a memory device functionally coupled to the processor. The computing system includes a plurality of real-time collaborative computing modules stored in the memory device and functionally coupled to the processor, wherein each collaborative computing module includes a function and a plurality of state characteristics stored in memory. The computing system includes a plurality of connection strand modules stored in the memory storage module and functionally coupled to the processing module, wherein each is configured to functionally couple collaborative computing modules together and to automatically operate on a first subset of the plurality of state characteristics according to a first predefined rule set.
US09395954B2 Project planning and debugging from functional decomposition
A system and method for performing functional decomposition of a software design to generate a computer-executable FSM and a graphical representation of the design in a decomposition diagram stored in a program database with source code, test code, and other program data. The method includes searching for pre-existing software modules that meet program design requirements. Modules needing work are displayed on Gantt or PERT charts as tasks, and may be annotated with start dates, and completion dates. Percent complete of the design is automatically generated and updated, and may be displayed on the charts. The decomposition is automatically used to introduce error detection states into the FSM for recognizing invalid states and saving checkpoints, and for recognizing and repairing both race conditions and deadlock conditions in the design.
US09395952B2 Product summation apparatus for a residue number arithmetic logic unit
Methods and systems for residue number system based ALUs, processors, and other hardware provide the full range of arithmetic operations while taking advantage of the benefits of the residue numbers in certain operations. In one or more embodiments, an RNS ALU or processor comprises a plurality of digit slices configured to perform modular arithmetic functions. Operation of the digit slices may be controlled by a controller. Residue numbers may be converted to and from fixed or mixed radix number systems for internal use and for use in various computing systems.
US09395950B2 Audio content auditioning
An example method may include displaying, by a network device, an indication of a first audio content and an indication of a second audio content; receiving, by the network device, first input data indicating a request for the first audio content to be played by a group of one or more playback devices; causing, by the network device, the group of one or more playback devices to render the first audio content; receiving, by the network device, second input data indicating a request to audition the second audio content using the network device; and in response to the request to audition the second audio content, rendering, by the network device, the second audio content while the group of one or more playback devices is playing the first audio content. An example network device and an example non-transitory computer-readable medium related to the example method may also be disclosed herein.
US09395949B2 Apparatus, method, and device for associating information with an object
An apparatus includes a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: receive a request of changing information that is displayed on an image in a superimposed manner corresponding to a position of an object included in the image; and associate second information with the object based on the request in place of first information displayed on the image in the superimposed manner corresponding to the position of the object.
US09395948B2 Screen display control system and screen display control method
An information acquiring unit acquires from a server the same type of information to be shown correspondingly in vehicle-mounted apparatuses with respect to one content, and information display units cause their displays to show the information to be shown correspondingly in the apparatuses from the same type of information acquired by the information acquiring unit. An operation for a content acquisition request by one of the plurality of vehicle-mounted apparatuses may only be required for showing the same type of information in synchronization on displays of the vehicle-mounted apparatuses, without separate operations for a content acquisition request in the vehicle-mounted apparatuses.
US09395946B2 Image viewing system, arbitrating terminal, image viewing method, and arbitrating method
An image viewing system according to the present disclosure includes (i) plural mobile terminals each including: a memory unit; an input receiving unit which receives an input for displaying an image selected by a user on the large display apparatus; and a display instructing unit which issues a first instruction to display the selected image on the large display apparatus, and (ii) a large display apparatus including: a large display; an arbitrating terminal determining unit which determines an arbitrating terminal; and a first display control unit which displays the image based on the instruction on the large display. The display instructing unit of the arbitrating terminal determines whether or not to cause the first display control unit to display the image indicated by the first instruction, and issues a second instruction to the large display apparatus to display an image according to a result of the determination.
US09395945B2 Smartpad—suspended app management
A multi-display device is adapted to be dockable or otherwise associatable with an additional device. In accordance with one exemplary embodiment, the multi-display device is dockable with a smartpad. The exemplary smartpad can include a screen, a touch sensitive display, a configurable area, a gesture capture region(s) and a camera. The smartpad can also include a port adapted to receive the device. The exemplary smartpad is able to cooperate with the device such that information displayable on the device is also displayable on the smartpad. Furthermore, any one or more of the functions on the device are extendable to the smartpad, with the smartpad capable of acting as an input/output interface or extension of the smartpad. Therefore, for example, information from one or more of the displays on the multi-screen device is displayable on the smartpad.
US09395940B1 Modifying a device driver of a device to include a network configuration of the device
Some of the embodiments of the present disclosure provide method comprising receiving a request at a device for a device driver associated with the device, the request for the device driver being received at the device through a network, the device having a network configuration in the network; and transmitting the device driver from the device in response to the request, including transmitting the network configuration of the device.
US09395939B2 Method for managing re-assignment of print jobs in case of printer errors
A print shop management method for handling re-assignment of print jobs after a printer error occurs. After a print job is assigned to a printing device, the print shop management system monitors the status of the printers. When a printer error occurs, re-assignment decisions is made based on the severity of the error, so that less severe errors can be resolved by the operator without job re-assignment, while more severe errors cause the print job to be automatically re-assigned to another printer. For some errors, the print shop management system may notify the operator of the error, and wait for a timeout period; if the operator does not respond within the timeout period, the print job will be re-assigned to another printer. The handling of a printer error may be affected by other factors such as time of day, physical proximity of an operator, etc.
US09395938B2 Storage control device and method for controlling storage devices
A storage control device includes a storage unit and a processor. The storage unit is configured to store therein a first score calculated for a first storage device. The processor is configured to add, upon detecting an event occurred in the first storage device, points corresponding to the event to the first score. The processor is configured to determine upon the addition, based on the first score and a second score, whether a sign of failure of the first storage device is detected. The second score is calculated for a first redundant unit of storage devices including the first storage device.
US09395937B1 Managing storage space in storage systems
A method is used in managing storage space in storage systems. Metadata of a slice of a storage pool in a data storage system is evaluated for returning the slice as free storage to the storage pool. Based on the evaluation, returning of the slice to the storage pool is affected. The metadata of the slice indicates whether the slice includes user data.
US09395936B2 Method and apparatus for remote storage performance data copy
A storage system comprises: a storage device; and a controller operable to manage a primary volume in the storage system of a remote copy pair with a secondary volume of another storage system by using a storage area of the storage device, and send a first type copy data to said another storage system according to a remote copy procedure of the remote copy pair, so that said another storage system can update the secondary volume based on the first type copy data. The controller is operable to create a second type copy data by using performance data of the primary volume, and to send the second type copy data to said another storage system according to the remote copy procedure, so that said another storage system can use the performance data of the primary volume for performance data of the secondary volume based on the second type copy data.
US09395934B1 NVMHCI attached hybrid data storage
A hybrid data storage device includes a solid-state memory device, a disc-type memory device and a hybrid data storage device controller in communication with the solid-state memory device and the disc-type memory device. The hybrid data storage device controller is configured to receive Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface (NVMHCI) commands from a host and use logic to make decisions for the optimization and efficient performance of the solid-state memory device and the disc-type memory device.
US09395930B2 Information processing system, control method of information processing system, and recording medium
An information processing system includes a plurality of information processing apparatuses, a management apparatus that manages the plurality of information processing apparatuses, and a device that is to be coupled with the management apparatus. Each of the plurality of the information processing apparatus includes a plurality of disk device group, each of which includes a plurality of disk devices. The management apparatus assigns a request received from the device to any one of the plurality of disk device groups. Each of the plurality of information processing apparatuses holds data management information including data size of data to be deleted according to the request, and deletes data stored in the plurality of disk devices when a summation of data sizes included in the data management information exceeds a threshold value.
US09395926B2 Storage system and management computer
A storage system according to the present invention includes multiple real storage subsystems, and defines a virtual storage subsystem composed of resources included in one or multiple real storage subsystems. Upon defining a virtual storage subsystem, a virtual logical partition corresponding to a real storage subsystem is provided in the virtual storage subsystem, and a logical partition correlation information which is attribute (limitation) information showing whether various resource management operations extending over virtual logical partitions can be executed or not to each pair within the multiple virtual logical partitions is created and managed. When a management operation instruction regarding the virtual storage subsystem is received, if the resources being the operation target based on the management operation instruction belong to multiple virtual logical partitions, whether resource operation can be executed or not is determined based on the logical partition correlation information, and management operation is limited thereby.
US09395920B2 Throttle disk I/O using disk drive simulation model
Computerized methods, systems, and computer-storage media for throttling requests from virtual machines (VMs) to a hard-disk drive (HDD) are provided. When a request for disk I/O is received from a VM, a disk-drive model that simulates performance characteristics of the HDD is accessed. During access, the disk-drive model's estimation of HDD parameters and the disk-drive model's estimation of a current state of a disk head of the HDD are gathered. A projected execution time to carry out the request is computed as a function of the estimated HDD parameters and the estimated current state of the disk head. Also, an actual execution time to carry out the request is measured upon allowing the request to pass to the HDD. Using a comparison of the projected execution time and the actual execution time, the traffic of the requests from the VMs is throttled.
US09395915B2 Operating method for a display device in a vehicle
In an operating method for a display device in a vehicle, the display device includes a touch-sensitive surface. A first output is displayed in an area of the display device. A first movement and a second movement by an operator relative to the touch-sensitive surface are detected simultaneously. The area is divided automatically along a first direction into a first subarea and a second subarea, if the first movement and the second movement proceed substantially in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and away from each other. The first output is displayed in the first subarea and a second output is displayed in the second subarea.
US09395914B2 Method for providing touch screen-based user interface and portable terminal adapted to the method
A method for providing touch screen-based user interface and a portable terminal adapted to the method are provided. The method includes setting types and display order of icons to be displayed on a touch screen, sensing a touch input to the touch screen, measuring a time that the touch input is retained on the touch screen, and displaying at least one icon, in an order, according to the measured touch input retaining time and the set types and display order of icons. The touch screen-based user interface providing method can allow a user to easily search for and operate a corresponding function, via a relatively small number of touch inputting actions, thereby enhancing the user's experience while the user is using the portable terminal.
US09395913B2 Onscreen function execution method for mobile terminal having a touchscreen
An onscreen function execution method for a mobile terminal having a touchscreen is provided. The method allows for executing functions of an activated application by a tap on a specific area of the touchscreen. An onscreen function execution method of the present invention includes mapping active regions of the touchscreen to functions of at least one application, displaying an application screen in response to an application activation command and executing, if a tap is detected on one of the active regions, a function mapped to the application activation command. The active regions may include a function execution display region and the applications may comprise a camera application, a music player application, an idle mode screen application and the like. The method allows a user to execute functions of an activated application by tap on the touchscreen.
US09395911B2 Computer input using hand drawn symbols
According to one example embodiment there is disclosed a system having a touch sensitive component responsive to a pen-based input includes a memory or storage device storing a symbol library defining at least one symbol representative of at least one logograph, pictograph or ideogram, the symbol library information specifying a topology structure defining sub-regions that symbol elements can appear in the at least one logograph, pictograph or ideogram, and a processor operatively connected to the touch sensitive component and the memory or storage device and operative to execute program instructions to interpret hand drawn indicia to identify at least one symbol based on recognizing at least one symbol element and its respective position in a sub-region.
US09395903B2 Sharing information between computing devices
Technologies for sharing information between computing devices comprises determining a location of a recipient destination computing device relative to a source computing device and transmitting information data to the recipient destination computing device based on an input gesture received on the source computing device and the relative location of the recipient computing device. The information data is usable by the recipient destination computing device to access the shared information. The input gesture may be embodied as a tactile or non-tactile gesture that indicates the relative location of the recipient computing device to which the information is to be shared.
US09395901B2 Portable electronic device and method of controlling same
A method includes detecting, on a touch-sensitive display of an electronic device, a touch. When no secondary input to the electronic device is detected during the touch, a first function associated with the touch is performed according to a first event handling process. When a secondary input is detected that overlaps at least partially in time with the touch, a second function associated with the touch is performed according to a second event handling process.
US09395899B2 Method and apparatus for editing screen of mobile device having touch screen
A method and an apparatus for editing a screen of a mobile device having a touch screen. In an idle mode, the mobile device displays an item display region containing at least one item on an idle screen. In an edit mode, the mobile device displays an edit command region containing at least one predetermined edit command on an edit screen. When a first item contained in the item display region is moved to the edit command region, the mobile device executes the predetermined edit command assigned to a moved position of the edit command region.
US09395897B2 Method for generating an on-screen menu
A method for generating an on-screen menu comprising menu buttons and other menu items, e.g. help text, is characterized in that one or more groups of menu buttons or menu items are defined, wherein a group comprises one or more menu buttons or menu items and has associated a defined area on the screen. A state is assigned to a button, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”, wherein only an enabled button or item may be displayed, and wherein within a group not more than one button or item may be enabled. The state of a button can be changed by commands associated with other buttons.
US09395896B2 Method for generating an on-screen menu
A method for generating an on-screen menu comprising menu buttons and other menu items, e.g. help text, is characterized in that one or more groups of menu buttons or menu items are defined, wherein a group comprises one or more menu buttons or menu items and has associated a defined area on the screen. A state is assigned to a button, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”, wherein only an enabled button or item may be displayed, and wherein within a group not more than one button or item may be enabled. The state of a button can be changed by commands associated with other buttons.
US09395894B2 System and method for browser side colorizing of icon images
A computer system and computer-implemented method colorizes a UI component image on the browser side. A data provider in the system encodes the UI component image into a Base64 character sequence which includes a header part and an image data part; generates Base64 header parts for specified colored versions of the UI component image; and transfers the encoded UI component image and the Base64 header parts for the specified colored versions of the UI component image to a client icon composer. The header part has a fixed amount of characters and the image data part has a variable amount of characters. The client icon composer replaces the header parts of the encoded UI component image with the Base64 header parts for the specified colored versions of the UI component image; and transfers the specified colored versions of the UI component image to a web page/application.
US09395883B1 Systems and method for integration of business analytics and business networking
Systems and methods to provide social analytics information are disclosed. An exemplary system may include a database and a server coupled to the database. The server may include a business analytics module configured to receive data related to a business and generate, based on the received data, a set of business analytics information, and store the business analytics information in the database. The server further may include an interactive display module configured to generate an interactive object based on the business analytics information, provide controlled access to the interactive object to a first user of a predefined group of users, and provide a display of the interactive object to a second user of the predefined group of users. The interactive display module may be further configured to update, responsive to an input from the first user, the interactive object so as to generate an updated interactive object, and provide, responsive to the updating, a display of the updated interactive object to the second user.
US09395881B2 Methods and systems for navigating display sequence maps
Systems and methods are provided for navigating display sequence maps. A system outputs, to a display device, content views in response to receiving requests for content views via a user interface. At least one of the content views may include a link that enables navigation to another one of the content views. Each of the content views may be a revision to content of another one of the content views. The system outputs, to the display device, a hierarchical representation of a sequence in which the content views were displayed in response to receiving a request for the hierarchical representation via the user interface. The hierarchical representation includes visual representations corresponding to the content views. The system outputs, to the display device, a selected one of the content views in response to a selection of the one of the visual representations corresponding to the content views from the hierarchical representation.
US09395877B2 Grouping zones
Methods and apparatus to manage zones of a playback system are disclosed. An example method includes displaying a plurality of zone icons, including a first zone icon and a second zone icon, each of the zone icons representing zone player(s) operable to play back multimedia content in a local area network, wherein the first and second zone icons are currently located in a first zone group region, and wherein the zone players associated with the first and second zone icons are members of a first zone group, the first zone group synchronously playing back a first multimedia content; receiving a first drag and drop input to select the second zone icon and drag the second zone icon from inside the first zone group region to outside the first zone region; and, based on the first drag and drop input, causing the zone player(s) associated with the second zone icon to be disassociated with the first zone group.
US09395875B2 Systems, methods, and computer program products for navigating through a virtual/augmented reality
The present disclosure provides an exemplary system, method, and computer program product. The exemplary method includes communicating with a provider of digital content to request data regarding a specific item of interest using a mobile device associated with a user. The method further includes receiving the requested data regarding the specific item of interest from the provider of digital content on the mobile device. The method further includes rendering the received data regarding the specific item of interest on a display of the mobile device, the rendering including superimposing the received data on a street view. The method further includes navigating through the street view according to navigation functions of the mobile device to locate a physical commercial location that carries the specific item of interest.
US09395874B2 Method of operating handheld electronic device and touch interface apparatus and storage medium using the same
A method of operating a handheld electronic device and a touch interface apparatus and a storage medium using the same are provided. In this method, an operating interface displayed on a touch screen of the handheld electronic device is used to operate a function module of the handheld electronic device. First, the function module of the handheld electronic device is activated to display a user interface corresponding to the function module on the touch screen. Next, an operating function of the function module is activated, so as to display a corresponding operating interface on the touch screen. In the meantime, the user interface of the function module is reduced simultaneously and displayed on an area of the touch screen excluding the operating interface. Accordingly, a convenient operating interface is provided for the user to operate while the content of original displayed frame remains.
US09395872B2 Facilities controlling device, screen displaying method, and recording medium
A facilities controlling device includes a file acquiring portion that acquires a screen file from a storing portion and acquires a corresponding image file, display script file and processing script file from the storing portion, a data processing portion that acquires, from a device, device data corresponding to data identifying information in the screen file acquired by the file acquiring portion, and performs data processing on the acquired device data based on a processing script in the processing script file corresponding to the device data obtained by the file acquiring portion, and a display processing portion that displays, in a screen, the device data produced by the data processing portion and a symbol of the image file acquired by the file acquiring portion, based on the display script in the display script file acquired by the file acquiring portion.
US09395870B1 Channel-condition-based message selection
A message selection system may include a memory device to store a plurality of messages. Each message may prompt a user to provide a respective predetermined response. The message selection may further include a processor in communication with the memory device. The processor may determine at least one condition associated with a channel configured to transmit the plurality of messages to a user interface. The processor may further select, in response to the at least one condition associated with the channel, at least one of the plurality of messages to be transmitted to the user interface over the channel. A method and computer-readable medium may also be implemented in message selection.
US09395867B2 Method and system for displaying an image on an electronic device
A method and method for displaying an image via a graphical user interface on a touch-sensitive display of an electronic device includes detecting a predetermined relation between a selection tool and the image. The image is panned in response to movement of the selection tool along the touch-sensitive display. The image is zoomed on in response to depression of the touch-sensitive display. An optional cursor may be activated upon detection of a first tap of the selection tool on the touch-sensitive display.
US09395865B2 Systems, methods, and graphical user interfaces for concurrent display of reply message and multiple response options
Systems, methods, and graphical user interfaces for concurrent display of a reply message and two or more response options are disclosed. In some implementations, a method includes, at a computer, maintaining the display of a reply message associated with a plurality of response options. Each respective response option in the plurality of response options is independently associated with one or more recipient addresses for the reply message. While maintaining the display of at least a portion of the reply message, at least one recipient address for the reply message is updated in accordance with a selected response option. In some implementations, the maintaining of the display of at least a portion of the reply message includes maintaining the display of at least a portion of a message body of the reply message. In some embodiments, the selected response option is one of: reply, reply to all, and forward.
US09395863B2 Touch panel and display device
A touch panel and a display device are disclosed. Either a cell or a cell, which is formed by the intersections of silver fine wires which form either first electrodes or second electrodes, forms parallelogram shapes (preferably rhomboids), having opposite angles wherein intersection angles are obtuse angles and intersection angles are acute angles. The first electrodes and/or the second electrodes have an adhesive (OCA) deployed thereupon, which has a loss coefficient (tan δ) of 0.13 or more at 140° C. and 1 Hz, and a reserve elasticity of 8.9×104 Pa or less at 25° C. and 1 Hz.
US09395859B1 Methods and apparatus to detect a touch pattern using variable scan rates
A method and apparatus scan a device at a first scanning rate and a second scanning rate, detect a first portion of a gesture through scanning at the first scanning rate, and detect a second portion of the gesture through scanning at the second scanning rate. The method and apparatus recognize the gesture based on the detected first portion of the gesture and the detected second portion of the gesture.
US09395857B2 Capacitive touch panel
A transparent capacitive touch panel comprising a transparent substrate, a transparent cover lens and a transparent adhesive layer is provided, wherein a first transparent electrode layer and a second transparent electrode layer are disposed on the transparent cover lens and the transparent substrate respectively. The transparent adhesive layer is used to bind the first transparent electrode layer and second transparent electrode layer in order to combine the transparent cover lens and the transparent substrate disposed in parallel. Thereby, the manufacturing process of the transparent capacitive touch panel is simplified, and the manufacturing cost of the same is lowered.
US09395856B2 Linear system coefficient estimating method, integrated circuit, and electronic device
A touch panel controller (3) capable of accurately detecting a change in capacitance includes: a driving section (4) which drives capacitors (C1 through CM) in parallel in accordance with N M-dimensional vectors; and an estimating section (5) which obtains linear sums of the capacitors (C1 through CM) in accordance with the driving in parallel and estimates values of the capacitors (C1 through CM) based on an inner product operation carried out with respect to (i) the linear sums of the capacitors (C1 through CM) and (ii) the N M-dimensional vectors, the driving section (4) driving the capacitors (C1 through CM) in parallel in a first order of the N M-dimensional vectors, the estimating section (5) estimating a first estimated value of the capacitors (C1 through CM) in accordance with the driving in parallel in the first order, the driving section (4) driving the capacitors (C1 through CM) in parallel in a second order of the N M-dimensional vectors, the estimating section (5) estimating a second estimated value of the capacitors (C1 through CM) in accordance with the driving in parallel in the second order, and the touch panel controller (3) further including an averaging section (17) estimating the values of the capacitors (C1 through CM) by averaging the first estimated value and the second estimated value.
US09395855B2 Touchscreen
A touchscreen of the present invention is covered by wiring patterns of a row-directional line and a column-directional line being upper and lower two layers. A step height that is produced by an upper electrode riding on a lower electrode when a floating electrode is provided at a region adjacent to the row-directional line and the column-directional line is suppressed.
US09395839B2 Touch control method and electronic system utilizing the same
A touch control method is implemented in an electronic system. A calculation of the product of a pressure value and the area over which pressure is applied are included in touch input data packets representing a touch operation, the values of net force associated with the touch input packets are thus obtained. A signal of a short press, if recognized, with a value of net force greater than a net force threshold can be recognized as a signal of a long press, thus simulating an operation of long press and triggering the selection of an object, where the selection of the object would otherwise require a long press operation. The touch control method operates to significantly speed up selection of an object.
US09395837B2 Management of data in an electronic device
An electronic device (1) includes: a touch-screen display (10); a memory (20) storing a plurality of categories of information sources, each category associated with respective notification data; a processing unit (30) configured to: display in a first position (P1) an item (X) representative of a determined source of information; determine a reference position (RP) on said display (10); detect a gesture (G) applied to the item (X) from the first position (P1) to a second position (P2); associate the determined source of information to one category, based on the second position (P2); a receiving module (RM) for receiving information and source data representative of a transmitting source of the information. If the transmitting source is the determined source the processing unit (30) selects the notification data associated with the category of the determined source and generates a notification signal based on the selected notification data.
US09395822B2 Keycap including a liquid crystal panel and polarizing glyphs
A keycap provides glyphs that are selectively visible. An exemplary keycap comprises a housing that has an at least partially transparent top side. A glyph made of a polarizing material is placed on the top side of the keycap. The glyph has a first plane of polarization. A liquid crystal panel is disposed inside the housing underneath the glyph. The liquid crystal panel is larger than the glyph above it. A polarizing filter having a second plane of polarization is arranged between the liquid crystal panel and a reflective carrier plate. Light enters the keycap through the transparent top side and is reflected at the bottom of the keycap by the reflective carrier plate. The reflected light is polarized by the polarization filter. The polarized light passes through the liquid crystal panel, which selectively rotates the polarization plane of light passing through it if the liquid crystal panel is active.
US09395816B2 Display device for selectively outputting tactile feedback and visual feedback and method for controlling the same
A display device for selectively outputting a tactile feedback and a visual feedback and a method for controlling the display device are disclosed. The method for controlling the display device includes outputting at least one of a first visual feedback and a first tactile feedback of a first User Interface (UI) on a UI unit, detecting a user's gaze toward the UI unit through a camera unit, sensing a contact making a movement on the first UI through a sensor unit, outputting a second visual feedback of a second UI in correspondence with the contact making a movement on the first UI, upon detection of the user's gaze, and outputting the first tactile feedback of the first UI in correspondence with the contact making a movement on the first UI, if the user's gaze is not detected.
US09395810B2 Ubiquitous natural user system
A system is provided for that includes sensor(s) configured to provide sensed input characteristic of a user, the user's environment or the user's interaction with their environment, and including from a 3D scanner, measurements of points on a surface of an object in the user's environment. A front-end system may receive and process the sensed input including the measurements to identify a known pattern that indicates a significance of the sensed input from which to identify operations of electronic resource(s). The front-end system may form and communicate an input to the electronic resource(s) to cause the resource(s) to perform the operations, including generation of a point cloud from the measurements, and transformation of the point cloud to a 3D model of the object. And the front-end system may receive an output including the 3D model from the resource(s), and communicate the output for display by a display device.
US09395808B2 Identification system, physical apparatus, identification apparatus, and identification method of physical apparatus
An identification system, a physical apparatus, an identification apparatus, and an identification method of the physical apparatus are provided. The identification system includes the physical apparatus and the identification apparatus. The physical apparatus has a path circuit disposed to an identification detecting pin. The identification apparatus transmits a probe signal to the identification detecting pin and then receives a reflected signal, wherein the reflected signal is generated by the probe signal which responds to an impedance characteristic of the path circuit. The identification apparatus obtains identification information of the physical apparatus according to the impedance characteristic of the path circuit which is responded by the reflected signal. The identification system of the present invention can reduce the number of pin for identifying and effectively utilize the impedance characteristic of the physical apparatus to identify identification information.
US09395807B2 Power management apparatus, image forming apparatus and power management method
A sleep mode in which power consumption is reduced to a prescribed value or smaller is achieved, while convenience for a user is maintained by shortening the time taken to recover from the sleep mode. The temperature of an LSI is measured or estimated when shifting to the sleep mode, and an apparatus enters a power supply shutoff sleep mode using power supply separation or a clock-gating sleep mode in accordance with the measured or estimated value of the temperature. In the case where power supply shutoff is selected, after entering the sleep mode, power supply is resumed and then the apparatus enters the clock-gating sleep mode in accordance with the measured temperature or the estimated temperature of the LSI.
US09395806B2 Method and apparatus for a power-efficient framework to maintain data synchronization of a mobile personal computer to simulate a connected scenario
An apparatus and method for a power-efficient framework to maintain data synchronization of a mobile personal computer (MPC) are described. In one embodiment, the method includes the detection of a data synchronization wakeup event while the MPC is operating according to a sleep state. Subsequent to wakeup event, at least one system resource is disabled to provide a minimum number of system resources required to re-establish a network connection. In one embodiment, user data from a network server is synchronized on the MPC without user intervention; the mobile platform system resumes operation according to the sleep state. In one embodiment, a wakeup alarm is programmed according to a user history profile regarding received e-mails. In a further embodiment, data synchronizing involves disabling a display, and throttling the system processor to operate at a reduced frequency. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09395802B2 Multi-core data array power gating restoral mechanism
An apparatus includes a fuse array and a stores. The fuse array is programmed with compressed configuration data for a plurality of cores. The stores is coupled to the plurality of cores, and includes a plurality of sub-stores that each correspond to each of the plurality of cores, where one of the plurality of cores accesses the semiconductor fuse array upon power-up/reset to read and decompress the compressed configuration data, and to store a plurality of decompressed configuration data sets for one or more cache memories within the each of the plurality of cores in the plurality of sub-stores. Each of the plurality of cores has sleep logic. The sleep logic is configured to subsequently access a corresponding one of the each of the plurality of sub-stores to retrieve and employ the decompressed configuration data sets to initialize the one or more caches following a power gating event.
US09395799B2 Power management techniques for USB interfaces
Power management techniques for a Universal Serial Bus (USB) include determining an idle period on one or more USB ports by a main controller circuit of a USB host controller. The main controller circuit signals a suspend to a Power Management Controller (PMC) sub-circuit of the USB host controller, in response to the determined idle period. The PMC sub-circuit stores one or more operating parameters of the one or more USB ports in response to the suspend signal. The PMC sub-circuit also maintains the idle state on the one or more USB ports in response to the suspend signal. Thereafter, the main controller circuit is placed in a low energy state while the PMC sub-circuit maintains the idle state.
US09395798B2 Automatic proximity-based adjustments to energy management routines
A method is provided for energy management for a telematics unit of a telematics-equipped vehicle. The method includes: determining, by a processor, that a mobile device is co-located with the telematics unit while vehicle ignition of the vehicle is on, wherein the mobile device is registered as being associated with the telematics unit; determining, by the processor, that the vehicle ignition has been turned off; determining, by the processor, a location of the vehicle corresponding to where the vehicle ignition was turned off and determining, by the processor, a location of the mobile device; and implementing, by the processor, situation-specific energy management based on the determined location of the vehicle and the determined location of the mobile device.
US09395797B2 Microcontroller with multiple power modes
A microcontroller operable in a high power mode and a low power unit (LPU) run mode includes primary and LPU domains, primary and LPU mode controllers, and primary and LPU clock generator modules. The primary domain includes a first set of circuits and a first set of cores. The LPU domain includes second and third sets of circuits, a second set of cores, and a switching module. In the high power mode, the switching module connects the first and second sets of cores to at least one of the first, second and third sets of circuits, while in the LPU run mode, the switching module isolates the LPU domain from the primary domain and activates a small microcontroller system (SMS) that includes the LPU domain, the LPU mode controller and the LPU clock generator module. The SMS has further low power modes within the LPU run mode.
US09395796B2 Dynamic graphics geometry preprocessing frequency scaling and prediction of performance gain
Technologies are presented that optimize graphics processing performance. A method of frequency scaling may include beginning a graphics workload with a starting geometry preprocessing frequency of a multiple of a streaming shader engine frequency where the multiple is non-zero; determining a primitive start pitch for a primitive of the graphics workload; comparing the determined primitive start pitch to a predetermined threshold and, if it exceeds the predetermined threshold: reducing the geometry preprocessing frequency, and, at the start of the next primitive, setting the geometry preprocessing frequency back to the starting geometry preprocessing frequency; and repeating the determining and comparing for each remaining primitive until an end of the graphics workload. Performance gain based on primitive start pitch information may also be determined.
US09395794B2 Remote controller
A remote controller includes a case. An operation input unit is disposed on an outer surface of a case, and receives an operation input for controlling a control subject. A control unit transmits a control signal for controlling the control subject. A substrate is disposed within the case, and comes into contact with the operation input unit when the operation input is received. A sensor is disposed on the substrate, detects vibration of the substrate caused by contact with the operation input unit, and outputs a detection signal indicating detection of the vibration. A contact detecting unit identifies whether or not the operation input is performed based on the detection signal. A power supply control unit controls power supplied to the control unit such as to increase the power when identified that the operation input is performed compared to the power when identified that the operation input is not performed.
US09395793B2 Electronic device and method for resuming from hibernation for the same
An electronic device and method for resuming from hibernation, the electronic device has a light sensing component and a tilt sensing component. When the electronic device is in the hibernation status, external light of electronic device is detected via the light sensing component for attaining light source data, the tilt angle of the electronic device against the horizontal plane is detected via the tilt sensing component for attaining tilt data. Thus, when it is determined that the light source data and the tilt data satisfy a predetermined resuming condition, the electronic device resumes from the hibernation status. With the present invention, when a user is going to operate electronic device, and the user only needs to hold electronic device and the electronic device resumes from the hibernation status and is ready to use without extra trigger actions required.
US09395792B1 System including a sleep detection mechanism
A method and apparatus of using sleep monitoring is described. The method comprises monitoring the user's state using a plurality of sensors in a sensor system and detecting when the user is falling asleep. The method further comprises turning off a wireless connection in the mobile device in response to the user falling asleep, such that the system does not synchronize between the mobile device and a display device while the user is asleep.
US09395791B2 Health care device and power management method therefor
A power management method for a health care device is included. The method includes: detecting whether a smart garment is in contact with a user body; operating the health care device in a normal mode when the smart garment is in contact with the user body, or operating the health care device in a low-power mode when the smart garment is not in contact with the user body; and under the low-power mode, detecting whether the health care device is tapped to determine whether to transmit user health data to a user device.
US09395787B2 Systems and methods of component voltage adjustment
Systems and methods for adjusting component voltage are disclosed. One example method includes: reading, over a control bus, a present value of voltage supplied to a component; comparing the present value of the voltage component to a predetermined minimum voltage associated with the component; and writing, over the control bus, a current setting that affects voltage provided to the component, wherein the writing is responsive to the comparison.
US09395786B2 Cross-layer power management in a multi-layer system
A method for cross-layer power management in a multi-layer system includes determining whether there is a service level violation for an application running on a hardware platform. Power consumption of the hardware platform is controlled in response to the service level violation.
US09395779B2 System including memory controller for managing power of memory
A system includes a power supply, a memory controller and a memory device. The memory controller is configured to receive power from the power supply, generate a memory power supply voltage for use by the memory device based on the power received from the power supply and provide the memory power supply voltage to the memory device.
US09395777B2 System-on-chip with capability for controlling power supply according to data transaction and method of operating the same
A system-on-chip (SoC) which includes a plurality of intellectual properties (IP cores) which communicate data with a memory device operates by monitoring whether a data transaction occurs between at least one of the IP cores and the memory device, determining an operation state of the IP core according to the result of the monitoring, and supplying the IP core with power corresponding to the operation state of the IP core.
US09395771B1 Plenum pressure control system
A plenum pressure controlled cabinet includes a sideways cooled component mounted so as to define gaps between the cabinet and the component. Baffles block some of the gaps. A negative pressure maintained within the cabinet causes makeup air to be drawn into the cabinet through a gap not blocked by baffles between one side of the cabinet and a cool air intake of the component. Thus, cool air is provided to the cool air intake of the component. A plenum pressure controlled enclosure includes an equipment rack maintained at a neutral pressure, a plenum maintained at a slightly negative pressure or a neutral pressure, and a cooling unit. The plenum takes in air from the rack and expels it into the cooling unit. By controlling differential pressures in the rack and the plenum, air is efficiently drawn from the equipment rack and cooled utilizing the cooling unit.
US09395770B1 Retractable data and power system having an inner carriage side panel with a latch with a round slot and an angled slot
An apparatus and method can include: providing an inner carriage side panel having a pivot point; coupling a latch to the inner carriage side panel, the latch having a round slot, an angled slot, a round bottom, a first extension, and a second extension; coupling an outer carriage side panel to the pivot point of the inner carriage side panel the outer carriage side panel including a latching pin extending therefrom, the latching pin positioned to sit in the round slot based on the inner carriage side panel being in a closed configuration, and the latching pin positioned to fit within the angled slot based on the inner carriage side panel transitioning to an open configuration; and attaching a carriage bottom panel to the inner carriage side panel.
US09395766B2 Plugging device
A plugging device includes a supporting frame having two opposite side plates disposed between front and rear ends thereof, at least one slide member adapted to be connected to one side of an electronic component and connected slidably to an inner surface of one of the side plates, and an operating member having at least one lever that includes a fulcrum portion connected pivotally to one of the side plates. When the operating member is pivoted rearwardly about the fulcrum portion, the slide member together with the electronic component is driven to slide relative to the supporting frame in a forward direction for plugging a plug electrical connector of the electronic component into a socket electrical connector.
US09395764B2 Gestural motion and speech interface control method for 3d audio-video-data navigation on handheld devices
A cognizant and adaptive method of informing a multi-modal navigation interface or a user's intent. This provides the user with the experience of exploring an immersive representation of the processed multimedia (audio-video-data) sources available that automatically adapts to her/his fruition preference. These results are obtained by first reconciling and aligning the User and the Device's frames of reference in tri-dimensional space and then dynamically and adaptively Smoothly Switching and/or combining both Gesture, Motion and Speech modalities. The direct consequence is a user experience that naturally adapts to the user choice of interaction and movement.
US09395760B2 Mobile terminal with waterproof sheet and manufacturing method
A mobile terminal has a waterproof sheet interposed between a first body portion and a second body portion. The waterproof sheet is formed with a curved shaped or step-like cross-section in consideration of characteristic of internal component or a battery arranged on the first body portion of the mobile terminal, the curved shaped or step-like cross-section is configured to encase, in part or in whole, the internal component or the battery.
US09395758B2 Back housing and display device
A back housing applicable to a curvature-adjustable display device is disclosed, wherein the back housing includes at least three housing bodies which are vertically arranged, the housing bodies are connected by at least two types of housing connectors including a rotating connector and a sliding connector, and the housing connector between adjacent housing bodies is one of the rotating connector and the sliding connector, and wherein the rotating connector is configured to have two adjacent housing bodies connected through rotation, and the sliding connector is configured to have two adjacent bodies connected through sliding.
US09395757B2 Auxiliary screen mounting system
An auxiliary screen support system for a computing device has mounting members arranged to be disposed on opposing lateral sides of a primary screen of the computing device in use. A retaining member extends between the mounting members, and is configured to hold the mounting members relative to the opposing lateral sides of the primary screen. At least one mounting member is configured to bear an auxiliary screen such that the auxiliary screen is hung relative to the primary screen in use. One or both mounting members may be formed as a unitary, rigid body and may be configured to hold an auxiliary screen at a fixed obtuse angle relative to a primary screen of the computing device.
US09395754B2 Optimizing memory for a wearable device
Systems and methods for optimizing memory for a wearable device are provided. A selection may be received from a user via a user interface of a wearable device. Such user selection may indicate an application. Application data associated with the selected application may be identified as being located at another device selected from a plurality of other devices. The application data may then be retrieved from the selected device over a communication network. A display may be generated and displayed on the user interface of the wearable device. Such display may be based on the retrieved application data and associated with execution of the selected application.
US09395750B2 Wearable apparatus
A wearable apparatus includes a flexible display device, and a flexible housing that holds the peripheral portion of the flexible display device. The flexible display device is disposed on the uppermost surface of the apparatus to serve as a reference for defining the total length of the apparatus, and the portion of the apparatus below the flexible display device contracts along the direction of the total length.
US09395747B1 Method for calibrating a clock signal generator in a reduced power state
Various embodiments of a clock generator are disclosed. An example system may include a functional unit, and a clock generation unit configured to adjust a frequency of an output clock signal responsive to an assertion of an enable signal from the functional unit. The clock generation unit may also be configured to halt the output clock signal responsive to a de-assertion of the enable signal by the functional unit and to restart the output clock signal responsive to a determination that a first predetermined amount of time has elapsed since the output clock signal was halted. The clock generation unit may be further configured to adjust the frequency of the output clock signal responsive to restarting the output clock signal, and to halt the output clock signal responsive to a determination that the frequency of the output clock signal is within a predetermined frequency range that includes the target frequency.
US09395742B2 Control unit for a functional device in a motor vehicle
A control unit controls a functional device of a motor vehicle. The control unit has a rotary adjuster that is mounted in a rotatable manner on a holding element. The rotary adjuster has at least one encoding element, a detecting device for detecting an absolute angle of rotation between the rotary adjuster and the holding element with reference to an encoding of the at least one encoding element and a latching device and the rotary adjuster is provided with a plurality of latching positions along a direction of rotation by the latching device. The detecting device is embodied so as with reference to the encoding of the at least one encoding element to detect the respective latching position and the absolute angle of rotation between at least two of the latching positions.
US09395741B2 Electric-power management system, electric-power management method, and section controller
Electric-power management system, an area controller transmits, to each of section controllers, information about a target voltage and information about the present voltage, each of the section controllers calculating a difference between the target voltage and the present voltage, received from the area controller, and calculating a power's demand-supply-adjustment request amount based on difference between the information about the voltages, each of facility-equipment controllers transmitting power-reception/power-release capable equipment information to each section controller, being information about a power-reception/power-release capable equipment in a facility into which the facility-equipment controller is installed, the section controller, based on the power-reception/power-release capable equipment information about the equipment, transmitting the equipment's demand-supply-adjustment request amount and the facility-equipment controller transmitting a control signal to the equipment based on the equipment's demand-supply-adjustment request amount received from the section controller to the facility-equipment controller in the facility.
US09395738B2 Current-parking switching regulator with a split inductor
A system and method are provided for regulating a voltage level at a load. The method configures a current control mechanism to generate a current through a first inductor and a second inductor that are coupled in series and configures a voltage control mechanism to provide a portion of the current to regulate the voltage level. The second inductor isolates the load from a parasitic capacitance of the current control mechanism. An electric power conversion device for regulating the voltage level at the load comprises the current control mechanism that is coupled to an electric power source and configured to generate a current through the first inductor and the second inductor that are coupled in series and the voltage control mechanism that is coupled to the second inductor and configured to provide a portion of the current to regulate the voltage level.
US09395737B2 Phase reconfigurable switching power supply
Embodiments of circuitry, which includes power supply switching circuitry and a first inductive element, are disclosed. The power supply switching circuitry has a first switching output and a second switching output. The first inductive element is coupled between the first switching output and a power supply output. The power supply switching circuitry operates in one of a first operating mode and a second operating mode. During the first operating mode, the first switching output is voltage compatible with the second switching output. During the second operating mode, the first switching output is allowed to be voltage incompatible with the second switching output.
US09395735B2 Control unit for an electric machine
A control unit for an electric machine. The control unit has a processing unit and a power output stage connected to the processing unit. The power output stage is connected to outputs of the control unit for stator coils of a stator of the electric machine. The processing unit is designed to supply current to the power output stage for generating a stator field, in particular a rotating magnetic field. The control unit comprises an electrical energy store, in particular an intermediate circuit capacitor or accumulator, connected to the power output stage. The control unit includes an input for a control signal, for example a temperature signal. The processing unit is preferably designed to actuate the power output stage as a function of the temperature signal such that the energy store can be heated by a current application pattern generated by the power output stage. The current application pattern corresponds to a stator field which cannot generate an effective torque or a rotary motion, such as a full revolution of a rotor of the electric machine.
US09395734B2 Control circuit of power converter
A control circuit of a power converter includes: an error detection circuit, configured to operably generate an error signal according to a reference signal and a feedback signal when coupling with an external feedback node of an external feedback circuit; an output signal detecting circuit, positioned inside the control circuit, configured to operably receive and detect an output signal of the power converter to generate a representative signal; an on time deciding circuit, coupled with the output signal detecting circuit, configured to operably generate an on time signal according to the representative signal; and a control signal generating circuit, coupled with the error detection circuit and the on time deciding circuit, configured to operably control on time of one or more power switches of the power converter according to the error signal and the on time signal.
US09395733B2 Voltage adjusting circuit applied to reference circuit
A circuit includes a detection node and a feedback node adapted to communicate with a reference circuit. A clamping transistor includes current conducting terminals and a gate coupled to the detection node. An amplifier transistor includes current conducting terminals in series with the current conducting terminals of the clamping transistor and a gate coupled to the detection node. The amplifier transistor is configured to cause a second voltage to be provided to the feedback node in response to the clamping transistor receiving a first voltage from the detection node.
US09395732B2 Low-dropout regulator and method for voltage regulation
A low-dropout regulator (1) comprises a differential amplifier (3) with a reference input (5) for applying a reference voltage (VIN), a feedback input (7) and an amplifier output (9). An output transistor (11) has a control connection (13) connected to the amplifier output (9), and a control section connected between a first supply potential terminal (VDD) and a voltage output (15) of the low-dropout regulator (1). A feedback branch (17) with an RC-parallel connection (19) is coupled between the voltage output (15) and the feedback input (7). A precharge circuit (30) includes a first field effect transistor (31) with a gate (32) coupled to the feedback input (7) and is configured to precharge the RC-parallel connection (19) to a threshold voltage (VTH) of the first field effect transistor (31).
US09395731B2 Circuit to reduce output capacitor of LDOs
Circuits and methods to reduce the size of output capacitors of LDOs or amplifiers are disclosed. Nonlinear mirroring of the load current allows scaling of gain or adapting small signal impedance of a pass transistor depending on other inputs, in case of a preferred embodiment, allows to reduce small signal impedance at the gate of the pass transistor as the load current increases, hence allowing to reduce the size of an output capacitor without compromising stability of the system.
US09395730B2 Voltage regulator
A method and apparatus are provided. The apparatus includes a plurality of devices forming a positive feedback loop for driving a regulated output voltage towards a reference voltage. Device ratios of at least two of the plurality of devices are set such that the positive feedback loop is stable.
US09395728B2 Charge pump device and driving capability adjustment method thereof
A charge pump device is disclosed. The charge pump device includes a driving stage, for generating a driving signal corresponding to a driving capability; a charge pump circuit, for generating an output voltage according to the driving signal; a comparing circuit, comprising a first comparator for comparing the output voltage and a first reference voltage to generate a first comparing result; an overload detection circuit, for generating a detection result according to at least one of the first comparing result and the output voltage; and a driving capability control circuit, coupled between the overload detection circuit and the driving stage for controlling the driving capability corresponding to the driving signal according to the detection result.
US09395723B2 Self-propelled robot assistant
A self-propelled robot and method for operating the same are provided. The self-propelled robot includes a base, a drive motor, a communication transceiver, at least two laterally spaced-apart range finding sensors and a processor. The base defines a bottom of a payload receiving space. The drive motor is operable to propel the base across a surface. The communication transceiver is configured to communicate with a carry sensor that is remote from the robot. The range finding sensors are configured to provide range information indicative of a distance between the remote device and the range finding sensors. The processor is configured to, when communication transceiver is in communication with the remote device, operate the drive motor to maintain a predefined distance between the range finding sensor and the carry sensor.
US09395721B2 In-situ monitoring of fabrication of integrated computational elements
Techniques include receiving a design of an integrated computational element (ICE), the ICE design including specification of a substrate and a plurality of layers, their respective target thicknesses and complex refractive indices, complex refractive indices of adjacent layers being different from each other, and a notional ICE fabricated in accordance with the ICE design being related to a characteristic of a sample; forming at least some of the plurality of layers of the ICE in accordance with the ICE design; performing at least two different types of in-situ measurements; predicting, using results of the at least two different types of in situ measurements, performance of the ICE relative to the ICE design; and adjusting the forming of the layers remaining to be formed, at least in part, by updating the ICE design based on the predicted performance.
US09395720B2 Numerical controller having a tool posture control function for multi-axis machining machines
A numerical controller controls a multi-axis machining machine having three linear axes and three rotation axes that include one rotation axis for tool phase control. The numerical controller interpolates smoothly a tool center point position and a tool posture (tool direction and tool phase direction) on the basis of a tool center point position instruction and a tool posture instruction; works out an interpolated tool center point position and an interpolated tool posture (interpolated tool direction and interpolated tool phase direction), and, on the basis of the interpolated tool center point position and the interpolated tool posture that have been worked out, calculates each position of the three linear axes and three rotation axes of the multi-axis machining machine, such that the respective axes are driven to the calculated position.
US09395718B1 Optimization of unique antenna and RF systems for specific substrates
A method incorporating an antenna and RF circuitry into the object acting as a substrate includes modeling the object as a three-dimensional object, and designing the antenna and RF circuitry for direct placement on the surface of the object. The step of designing is at least partially based on the size, three-dimensional shape, and material properties of the surface of the object acting as the substrate. The step of designing is preferably performed through use of an evolutionary optimizer implemented using parallel computing devices.
US09395716B2 Drug dispensing device
A dispensing device for dispensing liquids, particularly liquid medications to people, contains a container which is filled with a liquid and which has an opening at one end for dispensing same. The dispensing device further has at least one pair of capacitive measuring electrodes which are arranged in an outer region of the container, particularly on the wall, opposite one another, for determining the permittivity of the respective medium in the intermediate region between the measuring electrodes. A shield is arranged around the container and surrounds the measurement electrodes in a sheath-like manner.
US09395714B2 System construction support tool and system
In a system construction support tool, an allocating unit allocates one piece of template information selected from among a plurality of template information to each of a plurality of apparatuses to perform, concerning each of the apparatuses, tying by tag names among monitoring screen setting data, PLC project setting data, and tag server setting data.
US09395708B2 Systems and methods for adaptive sampling rate adjustment
A method for adaptively and automatically adjusting a sampling rate in a feedback control system includes monitoring an error signal for a disturbance event, evaluating the error signal in response to the disturbance event to estimate a time constant of a control process, and determining a sampling rate for use in the feedback control system based on the estimated time constant. The error signal may be based on a difference between a setpoint and a feedback signal and the feedback signal may be received from the control process.
US09395707B2 Dynamic contingency avoidance and mitigation system
The disclosed subject matter provides systems and methods for allocating resources within an infrastructure, such as an electrical grid, in response to changes to inputs and output demands on the infrastructure, such as energy sources and sinks. A disclosed system includes one or more processors, each having respective communication interfaces to receive data from the infrastructure, the data including infrastructure network data, one or more software applications, operatively coupled to and at least partially controlling the one or more processors, to process and characterize the infrastructure network data; and a display, coupled to the one or more processors, for visually presenting a depiction of at least a portion of the infrastructure including any changes in condition thereof, and one or more controllers in communication with the one or more processors, to manage processing of the resource, wherein the resource is obtained and/or distributed based on the characterization of the real time infrastructure data.
US09395705B2 Load torque estimation apparatus, image forming apparatus, load torque estimation method and non-transitory computer-readable information recording medium
A load torque estimation apparatus estimates load torque of an electric motor. The apparatus includes an estimation part configured to input a controlling value for controlling the electric motor and an actually measured value of a rotational speed of the electric motor to a model and estimating load torque of the electric motor; and a derivation part configured to derive a mechanical time constant of the electric motor corresponding to the actually measured value of the rotational speed of the electric motor. The estimation part is configured to update, according to a timing of acquiring the actually measured value of the rotational speed of the electric motor, the mechanical time constant included in the model by using the mechanical time constant corresponding to the acquired actually measured value and estimate the load torque of the electric motor by using the updated model.
US09395703B2 Multistage control method of flow control valve using DC motor
A multistage control method of a flow rate control valve which is opened or closed when a DC motor rotates. The method includes dividing angular speed limit areas of the DC motor depending on stages based on limit values so that angular speed values of the DC motor are to be scheduled depending on the stages and controlling the DC motor to rotate at a determined angular speed value depending on a corresponding angular speed instruction to the DC motor within one angular speed limit area. When the angular speed value of the DC motor is outside a limit value of the corresponding angular speed limit area, the DC motor rotates at a determined angular speed value until reaching outside a limit value of the corresponding limit area depending on a corresponding angular speed instruction to the DC motor within an angular speed limit area of the next stage.
US09395701B2 Active dead band for noise reduction in high response high bandwidth control systems
A control system comprises an active dead band, coupled to a feedback path of the control system, configured to receive a first signal derived from a motor position signal of the feedback path of the control system and a utilize, in accordance with the signal, a set of thresholds to prevent feedback noise within a driveline of the control system.
US09395699B2 Timing system and device and method for making the same
A timing device that includes an anode layer, a cathode layer and an electrolyte attached to a base layer. The anode layer and the cathode layer are placed adjacent to one another along an axis of the timing device. Upon activation of the timing device the anode layer is depleted away from the cathode layer until the timing device is fully expired. Once the timing device is expired, a change is seen indicating that the timing device has expired. In some embodiments, a color change indicates that the timing device has expired. In some embodiments, as the timing device expires electronically readable information is uncovered.
US09395698B2 Bang-bang time to digital converter systems and methods
A time to digital converter includes a mutual exclusion element and a sampling component. The mutual exclusion element is configured to receive a first clock and a second clock and to generate a first pulse and a second pulse. The mutual exclusion element is configured to drive the first pulse to a first logic state and the second pulse to a second logic state upon the first clock being earlier than the second clock and drive the second pulse to the first logic state and the first pulse to the second logic state upon the second clock being earlier than the first clock. The sampling component is configured to receive the first pulse and the second pulse and to generate a decision signal according to the first pulse and the second pulse.
US09395696B2 Multi-purpose interface for a portable electronic device
A multi-purpose band for use with a portable electronic device comprises a base link, an interface link, and a coupling link. The base link is joined to the interface link by an interface support hinge, and the coupling link is joined among the base link, and the interface link. The multi-purpose band is configured to be arranged in a band configuration for wearing on a wrist or ankle of a user and in a stand configuration for supporting a portable electronic device at a support angle. The interface link defines an interface surface. A charging feature may be disposed on the interface link proximate the interface surface, wherein the charging feature is configured to facilitate establishing a charging relationship between the charging feature and an electrical connector of the portable electronic device to facilitate engagement between the charging feature and the electrical connector.
US09395694B1 Timepiece with rotary bezel
A timepiece with a rotary bezel includes a rotary bezel attached to a case body so as to be rotatable relative thereto and a spring member disposed between the case body and the rotary bezel. The rotary bezel includes clicking engagement sections and locking engagement sections provided along the direction in which the rotary bezel is rotated and is configured to be movable relative to the case body in a timepiece thickness direction, and the spring member includes an urging piece that urges the rotary bezel toward a timepiece front side.
US09395688B2 Process cartridge
A process cartridge includes: a drum cartridge including a photoconductor; a development cartridge configured to be detachably attached to the drum cartridge and including a developer carrying member for supplying developer to the photoconductor; a locking member provided on the drum cartridge and configured to be switchable between a locking position in which the development cartridge attached to the drum cartridge is in a locked state and restrained from being moved in a removing direction in which the development cartridge is removed from the drum cartridge and a lifting position in which the locked state is released and the development cartridge is movable in the removing direction, and a retaining member configured to retain the development cartridge which has been moved from the locked state in the removing direction by switching the locking member from the locking position to the lifting position.
US09395686B2 Process cartridge and image forming apparatus
A process cartridge removably installable in an image forming apparatus includes a cartridge body including an image bearer; a cleaning unit removably attached to the cartridge body and including a lubricant supply device to lubricate the image bearer; a first contact terminal disposed in one of the cleaning unit and the cartridge body; and a second contact terminal disposed in the other of the cleaning unit and the cartridge body. The second contact terminal is disposed to contact the first contact terminal to establish electrical continuity between the cartridge body and the cleaning unit, and an end of the first contact terminal includes a sliding contact portion to slidingly contact the second contact terminal in attachment and removal of the cleaning unit to and from the cartridge body.
US09395685B2 Fixing device provided with positioning member capable of positioning heating unit with respect to pressure roller
A fixing device includes: a heating unit; a rotatable body; an urging mechanism; first and second bearings; a frame; first and second positioning members. The first and second bearings support first and second axial end portions of the rotatable body, respectively. The frame supports the heating unit and has two side walls. One of the side walls supports the first bearing, and the other supports the second bearing. Each side wall includes: a first wall portion supporting the first or second bearing; and second and third wall portions supporting the heating unit while interposing the heating unit therebetween. The first and second positioning members extend from the heating unit toward the first and second bearings, respectively. The heating unit is fixed in position relative to the first and second bearings upon engagement of the first and second positioning members with the first and second bearings, respectively.
US09395684B2 Developing cartridge having coupling and developing roller
In a cartridge, a housing has a developer accommodating portion and includes a first side wall and a second side wall. A coupling member is disposed at a position opposite to the developer accommodating portion with respect to the first side wall. A detection body is disposed at a position opposite to the developer accommodating portion with respect to the second side wall. A first driving force transmission member is positioned at the same side with the coupling member with respect to the first side wall, and transmits driving force from the coupling member to a rotating member. A second driving force transmission member is positioned at the same side with the detection body with respect to the second side wall, and transmits driving force from the rotating member to the detection body.
US09395680B2 Developer cartridge
In a developer cartridge, a base portion may be fixed to a surface of one side of a frame, and extend from one end thereof to another end thereof in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. A first portion may extend from one end thereof to another end thereof in the first direction. The one end of the first portion is connected to the other end of the base portion. A second portion may extend from one end thereof to another end thereof in a direction opposite to the second direction. The one end of the second portion is connected to the other end of the first portion. An electrode for the cartridge is deformable such that a distance between the base portion and the second portion can be decreased.
US09395674B2 Curl correction apparatus, sheet conveying apparatus, and image forming apparatus
A curl correction apparatus that corrects a curl of a sheet includes: a hard roller that is disposed in the downstream in a sheet conveying direction of a heating apparatus; a soft roller that is disposed in the downstream in the sheet conveying direction of the heating apparatus; and a guide member that is disposed in the immediate upstream in the sheet conveying direction with respect to the hard roller, and guides the sheet; wherein a nip width in the sheet conveying direction of a nip portion between the hard roller and the soft roller is set to be narrower in a central portion in an axial direction than end portions in the axial direction, and the guide member is configured to protrude in the central portion in the axial direction toward the downstream in the sheet conveying direction from the both end portions in the axial direction.
US09395671B1 Image forming apparatus and sheet transport device
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording material, a transport unit that transports the recording material, using a driving member which rotates and plural rotating parts which are aligned in an axial direction of the driving member and are disposed in contact with the driving member so as to rotate by receiving a driving force from the driving member, a support member that is shared by the plural rotating parts and supports the plural rotating parts from a side opposite to a side where the driving member is disposed, and a biasing unit that biases the support member toward the driving member.
US09395670B2 Image forming apparatus that reduces variation of count of printable sheets per toner container, image forming method, and recording medium
An image forming apparatus includes a print mode setting circuit, an average printing amount identifying circuit, a parameter setting circuit, and an image processing circuit. The print mode setting circuit sets to normal print mode or ecological print mode whose toner usage is less than a toner usage of the normal print mode. The average printing amount identifying circuit identifies an average printing rate in a predetermined count of printed sheets or an average amount of toner consumption per sheet. The parameter setting circuit decreases a printing rate parameter value in the ecological print mode based on a ratio of a predetermined reference value to the identified average printing rate or the identified average amount of toner consumption. The image processing circuit multiplies tone values of a print image by the printing rate parameter value in the ecological print mode to reduce a printing rate of the print image.
US09395668B2 Pressure-applying fixing roller and fixing device
To provide a fixing pressure roller which can be readily produced through molding and which has excellent durability, low hardness and low heat capacity, and a fixing device employing the fixing pressure roller. In the fixing pressure roller for employment in a fixing unit of a fixing device, the fixing pressure roller has a core, and an elastic layer provided around the core, wherein the elastic layer is formed of a foamed silicone rubber which is a foam curing product of an unvulcanized silicone rubber containing a chemical foaming agent, and has a mean cell diameter of 50 μm to 150 μm.
US09395663B1 Fixing device with temperature detection
A fixing device of an exemplary embodiment includes a fixing belt, an induced current generation section, an auxiliary heat generation section, a temperature detection section, and a control section. The fixing belt includes a conductive layer. The induced current generation section opposes the fixing belt in a thickness direction. The induced current generation section performs electromagnetic induction heating on the conductive layer. The auxiliary heat generation section opposes the induced current generation section with the fixing belt interposed therebetween. The temperature detection section detects a temperature of the auxiliary heat generation section. The control section reduces an output from the induced current generation section on the basis of a detection result from the temperature detection section.
US09395662B2 Image forming apparatus with heating control unit
An image forming apparatus includes a fuser unit that heats a medium and fuses a developer on the medium, a plurality of heating units that heat the fuser unit, a temperature detection unit that detects a temperature of the fuser unit, a heating control unit that controls a heating amount of the heating units based on the temperature detected by the temperature detection unit, and a selection unit that selects heating units to start heating from the plurality of heating units. The heating control unit sets such that, among the heating units selected by the selection unit, a heating amount of one of the heating units becomes larger than a heating amount of the others of the heating units.
US09395658B2 Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a belt-shaped image bearer; a transfer device disposed opposing to the image bearer; an opposed device disposed opposing to the transfer device; and a transfer bias power source. The image bearer is disposed along an outer circumferential surface of the transfer device at least one of an upstream side and a downstream side of the transfer portion in a direction of conveyance of the recording medium. The transfer bias power source cyclically alternates the transfer bias applied to the transfer portion, between a transfer directional bias in a transfer direction to transfer the toner image from the image bearer onto the recording medium and a reverse directional bias in a reverse direction of the transfer direction. The transfer bias power source applies the reverse directional bias during a time period longer than 50% of one cycle of the applied transfer bias in the one cycle.
US09395654B2 Image forming apparatus having simple and compact configuration to separate secondary transfer member from primary transfer belt
An image forming apparatus includes a lever configured to move a secondary transfer roller from an endless belt. The lever is arranged between a primary transfer surface of the endless belt, which opposes a plurality of image bearing members between an opposing roller and a stretching roller, and a surface opposing the primary transfer surface. The lever is engaged with the secondary transfer roller to separate the secondary transfer roller from the endless belt. Such a simple contact-separation configuration for the secondary transfer roller achieves reduction in size and space of the image forming apparatus.
US09395653B2 Wet-type developing device and wet-type image forming apparatus
The present wet-type developing device includes: a developer carrier for carrying a wet-type developer, which contains a charged toner particle and carrier liquid, and supplying the wet-type developer to an image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed; a charge neutralizing unit for neutralizing a charge of the toner particle contained in the wet-type developer remaining on the developer carrier after supplying the wet-type developer to the image carrier; a dispersing unit for dispersing the toner particle in the carrier liquid by acting on the toner particle contained in the wet-type developer neutralized in charge by the charge neutralizing unit; and a removing unit for removing, from the developer carrier, the wet-type developer containing the toner particle dispersed by the dispersing unit.
US09395652B2 Developing unit, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus
A developing unit includes a developer bearer to bear developer on a surface thereof, first and second developer conveyors each having a spiral blade mounted on a rotary shaft thereof parallel to a rotary axis of the developer bearer to convey developer in opposite directions to each other. A developer drain hole is provided at a given height in a side wall of a second developer conveyance channel to face a communication opening across the second developer conveyor. The first developer conveyor rotates in a direction with its spiral blade rising between the rotary shaft of the first developer conveyor and the communication opening. Rotational phases of the first developer conveyor and the second developer conveyor are fixed and synchronized with each other to weaken momentum of developer flow generated by the first developer conveyor toward the developer drain hole via the second developer conveyor.
US09395651B2 Developer container and image forming apparatus including the same
A developer container (30) includes a container body (31), a movable wall (34), and a stirring member (32). The container body (31) includes an inner surface (31K) defining a cylindrical internal space (31H) extending in a longitudinal direction, and a developer discharge port (319). The developer discharge port (319) is formed in a lower part of the inner surface (31K). The movable wall (34) includes an outer surface (34K) disposed slidably in close contact with the inner surface (31K) of the container body (31), and a conveying surface (340S). The conveying surface (340S) defines a storage space (31S) for developer. The movable wall (34) moves while conveying the developer in the storage space (31 S) to the developer discharge port (319). The stirring member (32) stirs developer in the storage space (31 S).
US09395648B2 Toner accommodating container and image forming apparatus
In connection with movement of an opening-closing member when a toner accommodating container is attached to the image forming apparatus, the urging direction of an urging member relative to the opening-closing member changes from a direction that causes the opening-closing member to close an opening portion to a direction that causes the opening-closing member to open the opening portion. By using the urging force of the urging member that acts in the direction that causes the opening-closing member to open the opening portion, the toner accommodating container is pulled into the image forming apparatus.
US09395642B2 Image forming apparatus that adjusts the start timings of transfer bias voltage applications to prevent nonuniformity in printed image density
An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of photosensitive drums, and a controller for executing, when an absolute value of a set point of a charged potential is not higher than a predetermined threshold, an operation in a first mode in which charging bias voltages and transfer bias voltages are applied to image regions of the drums, at a preset length of time before image exposures are carried out by the exposure members and thereafter, the image exposures are carried out by the exposure members, respectively, and for executing, when the absolute value of the set point of the charged potential is higher than the predetermined threshold, an operation in a second mode in which timings of starting applications of the transfer bias voltages to the transfer members are delayed as compared with those in the first mode, respectively.
US09395641B2 Liquid developer
A liquid developer includes an insulating liquid and toner particles which are dispersed in the insulating liquid and contain a resin and a coloring agent. The resin contains a first resin which is a resin containing a component derived from a crystalline polyester resin. The coloring agent contains carbon black and nigrosine. The toner particles have a peak at not lower than 30° C. and not higher than 50° C. in a DSC curve in temperature decrease.
US09395631B2 Multi-beam pattern generators employing yaw correction when writing upon large substrates, and associated methods
Multi-beam pattern generators employing yaw correction when writing upon large substrates, and associated methods are disclosed. A multi-beam pattern generator may include a spatial light modulator (SLM) with independently controllable mirrors to reflect light onto a substrate to write a pattern. The pattern may be written in writing cycles where the substrate is moved to writing cycle zone locations. The light is reflected by the SLM onto the substrate by mirrors of the SLM in active positions to write the pattern upon the substrate. By determining a location and yaw of the substrate with respect to the SLM in each writing cycle, some mirrors of the SLM may be digitally controlled to either inactive positions or the active positions to compensate for the yaw of the substrate. In this manner, the pattern written upon the substrate may be precisely written with compensation for yaw.
US09395629B2 Special layout design printed rectangular pattern and improved pattern critical dimension uniformity
Present example embodiments relate generally to semiconductor devices, masks, wafers, and methods of fabricating semiconductor devices, masks, and wafers. Example methods comprise providing a substrate having a photoresist layer. Example methods further comprise providing a mask having a substantially rectangular pattern and an elongated pattern, at least a portion of the elongated pattern positioned at least proximate to a corner of the substantially rectangular pattern, wherein the elongated pattern extends outwardly from the substantially rectangular pattern. Example methods further comprise forming a substantially rectangular shaped pattern on the photoresist layer resembling the substantially rectangular pattern using a cooperation of the substantially rectangular pattern and the elongated pattern.
US09395627B2 Positive photosensitive resin composition and method for forming pattern by using the same
The present invention relates to a positive photosensitive resin composition and a method for forming a pattern by using the same. The positive photosensitive resin composition includes a novolac resin (A), a polysiloxane (B), an ortho-naphthoquinone diazide sulfonic acid ester (C) and a solvent (D). The novolac resin (A) includes a xylenol-type novolac resin (A-1). The xylenol-type novolac resin (A-1) is synthesized by polycondensing an aldehyde compound with a xylenol compound.
US09395623B2 Replication tools and related fabrication methods and apparatus
Durable seamless replication tools are disclosed for replication of seamless relief patterns in desired media, for example in optical recording or data storage media. Methods of making such durable replication tools are disclosed, including preparing a recording substrate on the inner surface of a support cylinder, recording and developing a relief pattern in the substrate, creating a durable negative relief replica of the pattern, extracting the resulting durable tool sleeve from a processing cell, and mounting the tool sleeve on a mounting fixture. Apparatus are disclosed for fabricating such seamless replication tools, including systems for recording a desired relief pattern on a photosensitive layer on an inner surface of a support cylinder. Also disclosed are electrodeposition cells for forming a durable tool sleeve having a desired relief pattern. The replication tool relief features may have critical dimensions down to the micron and nanometer regime.
US09395616B2 Projection screen and manufacturing method of projection screen
A projection screen that includes a transparent substrate, a plurality of micro-lens structures, a Fresnel lens structure, a light absorption layer, and a diffusive reflection layer is provided. The transparent substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The micro-lens structures are located at the first surface of the transparent substrate. The Fresnel lens structure is located at the second surface of the transparent substrate. The light absorption layer includes a light absorption portion. The diffusive reflection layer includes a plurality of dispersive diffusive reflection portions connected to the Fresnel lens structure. The deviation degrees of the diffusive reflection portions with respect to a plurality of optical axes of the corresponding micro-lens structures increase together with an increase in slopes of inclined surfaces of the Fresnel lens structure on the corresponding optical axes. A manufacturing method of the projection screen is also provided.
US09395615B2 Method of assembling a tensioned projection screen apparatus
A projection screen apparatus is disclosed for displaying an image projected by a projector. The projection screen apparatus includes a frame and a screen. The frame includes a plurality of side frame members and corner frame members.
US09395612B2 High power ultra-short pulse laser-illuminated projector
A laser illuminated projector system is configured with multiple Red, Green and Blue laser sources. The Green laser source has an all fiber master oscillator power amplifier configuration in which pump light is coupled into the output end of the fiber amplifier in a counter-propagation direction rendering the structure of the Green source and therefore projector system compact. The Green laser source is operative to emit signal light pulses at about 1064 nm wavelength with a pulse repetition reaching of up to about 3000 kHz, pulse duration between about a 100 fm to about 100 psec, an average power between 1.5 W to above 30 W, a peak power above 5 MW, a pulse energy exceeding 100 μJ and a beam quality parameter M2 ranging between 1.2 and 1.5. The thus configured Green laser source substantially reduces speckle otherwise visible on the laser illuminated screen.
US09395605B2 Electronic apparatus having member for locking grip part
An electronic apparatus reduced in the number of components without impairing the operability of an unlocking operation part and an adjacent other operation part of a grip part. A digital video camera has a camera body and a grip part rotatable with respect to the camera body. A lock member within the grip part is rotatable in unison with the grip part, and is pivotally moved between a locking position for locking the grip part and an unlocking position for unlocking the same. A spring member urges the lock member toward the locking position. An operation knob formed on the lock member pivotally moves the lock member to the unlocking position against the urging force of the spring member. A recording start/stop button is formed in the lock member adjacent to the operation knob. The knob and the button are operated in respective different directions.
US09395599B2 Focal plane shutter and optical apparatus
A focal plane shutter includes: a first board including a first opening; a first shutter including plural first blades, and facing the first board and closing the first opening such that an overlapped state where the plural first blades overlap each other is shifted to an expanded state where the plural first blades expand; and a drive member connected to a root portion of the first shutter and causing the first shutter to move.
US09395597B2 Color-based stereoscopic projection system and method
A stereoscopic projection system and method of generating light that include two or three infrared lasers, two optical parametric oscillators, and six or seven second harmonic generators. Six colors of visible light are produced. Three bands of red, green, and blue form an image for the left eye of the viewer, while the other three bands of red, green, and blue form an image for the right eye of the viewer.
US09395590B2 Liquid crystal display
A thin film transistor substrate includes a source line and a gate line arranged to cross each other in a grid pattern, and a thin film transistor arranged at the intersection between the source line and the gate line. The source line is covered with an insulating film, and the insulating film is covered with a first alignment film. An opposite substrate includes a protrusion arranged so as to protrude toward the thin film transistor substrate. With the thin film transistor substrate and the opposite substrate arranged to face each other, the protrusion is arranged so as to cover the source line from above and to extend in a direction in which the source line extends. The protrusion has a conductive film arranged on an edge surface of the protrusion near the source line. The protrusion and the conductive film are covered with a second alignment film.
US09395589B2 Electronic device with inverted liquid crystal display
An electronic device may have a liquid crystal display with backlight structures. The backlight structures may produce backlight that passes through an array of display pixels. The display pixels may include electrode structures and thin-film transistor structures for controlling electric fields in a layer of liquid crystal material. The liquid crystal material may be formed between an outer display layer and an inner display layer. The inner display layer may be interposed between the backlight structures and the liquid crystal material. Thin-film transistor structures, electrodes, and conductive interconnection lines may be deposited in a layer on the inner surface of the outer display layer. A layer of color filter elements may be used to provide the display with color pixels. The color filter elements may be formed on top of the thin-film transistor layer or on a separate color filter array substrate such as the inner display layer.
US09395588B2 Transparent electrode, array substrate and liquid crystal display device
Embodiments of the invention provide a transparent electrode, an array substrate and a liquid crystal display device. The transparent electrode includes a first-domain display region and a second-domain display region that are adjacent to each other, openings are respectively formed in the first-domain display region and the second-domain display region of the transparent electrode so that the transparent electrode has a first slit extending in a first direction in the first-domain display region and a second slit extending in a second direction different from the first direction in the second-domain display region. Additional openings are further formed at a region between the first-domain display region and the second-domain display region of the transparent electrode, so that a third slit extending in a third direction and a fourth slit extending in a fourth direction different from the third direction are formed at this region.
US09395585B2 Display device and manufacturing method thereof
In a display device having high reliability, even if being a narrow framing type, and a method for manufacturing thereof, having a display panel, being made up with a first substrate 101 and a second substrate 201, which are adhered with using a seal 301, a main SOC 302 is disposed like a wall, on a peripheral end portion of the first substrate 101 and the second substrate 201, and the seal 301 is disposed inwardly of the main SOC 302. Also, in a method for manufacturing thereof, the main SOC 302 is formed in a region including a cutting plane between the display panel regions neighboring with, and on the cutting plane is made the cutting thereof.
US09395584B2 Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same
There is provided a high quality liquid crystal panel having a thickness with high accuracy, which is designed, without using a particulate spacer, within a free range in accordance with characteristics of a used liquid crystal and a driving method, and is also provided a method of fabricating the same. The shape of a spacer for keeping a substrate interval constant is made such that it is a columnar shape, a radius R of curvature is 2 μm or less, a height H is 0.5 μm to 10 μm, a diameter is 20 μm or less, and an angle α is 65° to 115°. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the lowering of an opening rate and the lowering of light leakage due to orientation disturbance.
US09395576B2 Organic light emitting diode display device, manufacturing method for the same and display system
Disclosed are an organic light emitting diode display device, a manufacturing method for the same and a display system, for realizing compatibility of ordinary non-transparent display and transparent display in the organic light emitting diode display device, as well as the switching between ordinary non-transparent display and transparent display. The display device comprises: a transparent organic light emitting diode (OLED) display panel (20) and a light valve component (21); the light valve component (21) is disposed on a non-display surface of the transparent OLED display panel (20); and the light valve component (21) at least has two states under electric fields: a transparent state and a non-transparent state.
US09395573B2 Illumination unit including light modulation layer and display unit
Provided is an edge light illumination device, in which a light modulation layer includes: a first region having optical anisotropy and a relatively high responsiveness to an electrical field; and a second region having optical anisotropy and a relatively low responsiveness to the electrical field. When denoting dispersal, the light modulation layer satisfies the formulae A>B>C and A1/C1
US09395572B2 Display apparatus
Provided is a display apparatus including a display panel for displaying an image, a heat source arranged at a side surface of at least one side of the display panel, a heat absorbing section for absorbing heat generated by the heat source, a back surface plate arranged at a back surface side of the display panel and made of a metal, a portion of the back surface plate being in close contact with the heat absorbing section, a front surface plate arranged at a front surface side of the display panel and made of a metal, and a middle chassis arranged between the front surface plate and the heat absorbing section.
US09395569B2 Display apparatus
Disclosed is a display apparatus in which liquid crystal is injected into a non-display area having a transmitting hole formed in a predetermined portion of a panel corresponding to a camera, wherein the display apparatus comprises a display unit having a panel which is provided with lower and upper substrates sealed under the circumstance that liquid crystal is filled therebetween; and a guide frame which supports the display unit, wherein the guide frame includes: a guide sidewall which guides a lateral side of the panel; and a panel supporter which supports the panel, wherein a camera receiving part with a camera mounted thereon is formed in a first panel support of the panel supporter, a transmitting hole for transmitting light to the camera is formed in a black matrix of a first non-display area to be placed on the first panel supporter of the upper substrate, and a display area of the panel and the first non-display area are filled with liquid crystal.
US09395567B2 Display device and liquid crystal display device that prevent cracking of a display panel without increasing in size
A liquid crystal display device is provided that prevents the cracking of a display panel without an increase in size. The liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel, a cover plate arranged to face a surface of the liquid crystal display panel on which an image is displayed, and a backlight arranged to face a back surface of the liquid crystal display panel. The backlight includes a frame facing a peripheral part of the back surface of the liquid crystal display panel. The liquid crystal display panel has a planar shape in which at least one corner part of a rectangle is cut away. The frame includes a columnar part which rises in a direction toward the cover plate and fits in an area where the at least one corner part is cut away.
US09395566B2 Liquid crystal display backlight device
A liquid crystal display backlight device for reducing a thickness of a terminal is provided. The liquid crystal display backlight device includes a backlight unit disposed at a lower part of a liquid crystal display module, a set bracket for mounting while enclosing the backlight unit, and a liquid crystal display Flexible Printed Circuit Board (FPCB) folded from the liquid crystal display module to a rear surface of the set bracket. Therefore, a thickness and width of the liquid crystal display backlight device can further be reduced and thus a user can easily carry the liquid crystal display backlight device. Further, rigidity of the set bracket can be prevented from being weakened.
US09395565B2 LCD substrate and LCD panel
A liquid crystal display (LCD) substrate, comprising: at least one pattern region; and a cutting region around the at least one pattern region, wherein a piezoelectric thin film is formed in the cutting region, and each end of the piezoelectric thin film is connected with a lead.
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